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MONEY 


BY 

ÉMILE ZOLA 

> * 


TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 


BENJ. R. TUCKER 


,rc ="*c 

: VR /Gh/ 

MA' CO IB9I ; 


BOSTON, MASS. 

BENJ. R. TUCKER, Publisher 

1891 


Z-1-vtV 

‘2 


Copyright, 1891, 

BY 


BENJ. R. TUCKER. 


MONEY. 



i. 

The hourof eleven had just struck at the Bourse when 
Saccard entered Champeaux’ restaurant with its white and 
gold decorations and its two high windows fronting on 
the square. With a hasty glance he surveyed the rows 
of little tables, at which the busy eaters sat closely to- 
gether, elbow to elbow ; and he seemed surprised not to 
see the face that he sought. 

As, in the jostling of the service, the waiter passed, 
with his arms full of dishes, he said to him : 

“ Say, hasn’t Monsieur Huret come?” 

“ No, Monsieur, not yet.” 

Then Saccard, coming to a decision, sat down at a table 
which a customer was leaving, in the embrasure of one of 
the windows. He thought that he was late; and, while 
they were changing the napkin, he directed his looks out- 
side, scrutinizing those passing on the sidewalk. And, 
even when the table was freshly laid, he did not order di- 
rectly, but remained a moment with his eyes fixed on the 
square, which wore a very gay appearance on this bright 
morning of one of the early days of May. At this hour 
when everybody was at breakfast, it was almost empty : 
under the chestnut-trees, with their soft, fresh verdure, the 
benches remained unoccupied ; along the railing, at the 
cab-stand, the line of carriages stretched from one end to 
the other; and the omnibus of the Bastille stopped at the 
office, at the corner of the garden, without dropping or 

3 


4 


MONEY. 


taking passengers. The sun’s rays fell vertically, bathing 
the monument, with its colonnade, its high statues, and 
its broad steps, at the top of which there was as yet only 
the army of chairs, in good order. 

But Saccard, having turned, recognized Mazaud, the 
stock-broker, at the table next to his own. He extended 
his hand. 

“ Indeed ! you are here ? How do you do ? ” 

“ How do you do?” answered Mazaud, shaking hands 
in an absent-minded fashion. 

Short, dark, a very brisk, good-looking man, he had . 
just inherited from one of his uncles at the age of thirty- 
two. And he seemed on intimate terms with the person 
opposite him, a stout gentleman with red and shaven face, 
the celebrated Amadieu, who was an object of admiration 
at the Bourse since his famous deal in Selsis mining stock. 
When the shares had fallen to fifteen francs, and any one 
who bought it was looked on as a madman, he had put 
his whole fortune, two hundred thousand francs, into the 
affair, at a venture, without calculation or instinct, through 
obstinate confidence in his bull luck. Now that the dis- 
covery of real and important veins had sent the price of 
the shares up above a thousand francs, he had made fifteen 
millions; and his imbecile operation, which ought to have 
caused him to be shut up somewhere else, now lifted him 
to the rank of great financial intellects. He was saluted 
and consulted more than anyone. Moreover, he placed no 
more orders, seeming to be satisfied, enthroning himself 
henceforth upon his unique and legendary stroke of genius. 
Mazaud must be seeking his patronage. 

Saccard, not having been able to obtain even a smile 
from Amadieu, saluted the table opposite, where were 
gathered three speculators of his acquaintance, Pillerault, 
Moser, and Salmon. 

“ How do you do ? Is everything going right with you ? ” 

“ Yes, not badly. How do you do? ” 

In these two he felt an attitude of coldness, almost of 
hostility. Pillerault, however, very tall, very thin, with 
spasmodic gestures, and a nose resembling the blade of a 
broad-sword, in the bony face of a knight-errant, had 


MONËŸ. 


5 


habitually the familiarity of a gambler who makes reck- 
lessness a principle, declaring that he plunged head over 
heels into catastrophes whenever he stopped to reflect. 
He had the exuberant nature of a bull, ever turned toward 
victory, whereas Moser, on the contrary, short in stature, 
with a yellow skin, ravaged by a liver disease, was contin- 
ually lamenting, the victim of an incessant dread of a 
cataclysm. As for Salmon, a very fine-looking man 
struggling against the fifties and displaying a superb beard 
of inky blackness, he passed for a fellow of extraordinary 
force. Never did he speak ; he answered only by smiles ; 
one never could tell in what he was speculating, or whether 
he was speculating at all ; and his way of listening made 
such an impression on Moser that often the latter, after 
having made him his confidant, ran to change an order, 
disconcerted by his silence. 

In this indifference thus exhibited toward him, Saccard 
had remained, with feverish and provoking looks, finish- 
ing his survey of the room. And he exchanged no other 
nod except with a tall young man sitting three tables 
away, the handsome Sabatani, a Levantine, with a long, 
dark face, illuminated by magnificent black eyes, but 
spoiled by a disturbing, disquieting mouth. This fellow’s 
amiability irritated him : disgraced in some foreign stock 
market, he was one of those mysterious scamps loved by 
women, who had tumbled into the market the previous 
autumn, and whom Saccard had already seen officiating 
as a figure-head in a banking disaster, but who little by 
little was gaining the confidence of the corbeille * and of 
the coulisse f by scrupulous correctness of behavior and 
an indefatigable good grace shown even to the most dis- 
reputable. 

A waiter was standing before Saccard. 

“ What will Monsieur have?” 

“ Oh, yes; anything you like, — a cutlet, some asparagus.” 

* A space reserved at the Bourse, in the middle of the main hall, where 
the brokers meet to consummate their transactions. — Translator. 

f A little station, not recognized by the law, where brokers, unauthor- 
ized but sanctioned by custom in spite of efforts to the contrary, perform 
functions similar to those of the regular brokers. — Translator. 


6 


MONEV. 


Then he called the waiter back. 

“You are sure that Monsieur Huret did not come in 
before me and go away again ? ” 

“ Oh, absolutely sure.” 

So there he was, after the crash which in October had 
forced him once more to wind up his affairs, to sell his 
mansion in the Parc Monceaux and rent a suite of rooms : 
the Sabatanis alone saluted him ; his entrance into a res- 
taurant where he had reigned, no longer caused all heads 
to turn, all hands to extend. He was a good gambler, he 
nursed no rancor in consequence of this last speculation 
in lands, scandalous and disastrous, from which he had 
scarcely saved more than his skin. But a fever of revenge 
was kindling in his being, and the absence of Huret, who 
hâd formally promised to be there at eleven o’clock to 
report concerning the negotiation which he had undertaken 
with Saccard’s brother Rougon, the minister then tri- 
umphant, exasperated him especially against the latter. 
Huret, a docile deputy, a creature of the great man, was 
only a commissioner. But Rougon, he who could do 
anything, was it possible that he had abandoned him thus ? 
Never had he shown himself a good brother. That he 
should have been angry after the catastrophe, and openly 
broken with him in order not to be compromised himself, 
was natural enough ; but ought he not during the last six 
months to have come secretly to his aid ? And now would 
he have the heart to refuse to give the final lift which he 
asked of him through a third party, not daring to see him 
in person, fearing that he might be carried away by some 
fit of passion ? He had only to say a word to put him on 
his feet again, with all huge cowardly Paris beneath his 
heels. 

“What wine does Monsieur wish ? ” asked the waiter. 

“ Your ordinary Bordeaux.” 

Saccard, who, in his absent-mindedness and lack of 
appetite, was letting his cutlet grow cold, raised his eyes 
as he saw a shadow pass over the table-cloth. It was 
Massias, a stout, red-faced fellow, a r ctuisicv* whom he 

*A broker’s clerk who brings business to his employer and receives a 
share of the commission. — Translator. 


MONEY. 


7 


had known in want, and who glided among the tables 
with his quotations in his hand. He was exasperated at 
seeing him march by him, without stopping, to go and 
hand the quotations to Pillerault and to Moser. Their 
thoughts elsewhere, engaged in a discussion, these gave it 
scarcely a glance : no, they had no order to give ; they 
would give one some other time. Massias, not daring to 
abroach the celebrated Amadieu, who was leaning over 
a mbster-salad and conversing in low tones with Mazaud, 
came back to Salmon, who took the quotations, studied 
them at length, and then returned them without a word. 
The room was growing animated. Other remisiers kept 
the doors constantly swinging. Loud words were ex- 
changed at a distance, the passion for business rising as 
the hour advanced. And Saccard, whose looks continu- 
ally turned to the street, saw only the square gradually 
filling up with the carriages and pedestrians flocking in ; 
while on the steps of the Bourse, shining in the sunlight, 
black spots, men, were already appearing one by one. 

“ Again I tell you,” said Moser, in his disconsolate voice, 
“ that these complementary elections of the 20th of March 
are a most disturbing symptom. In fact, all Paris is to-day 
on the side of the opposition.” 

But Pillerault shrugged his shoulders. Suppose Carnot 
and Garnier-Pagès should be added to the benches of the 
Left, what difference could that make ? 

“ It is like the question of the duchies,” resumed 
Moser; “well, it is big with complications. Certainly, 
you needn’t laugh. I do not say that we were bound to 
make war on Prussia to prevent her from laying hands on 
Denmark ; only there were means of action. Yes, yes, 
when the big fish begin to eat the little fish, one never 
knows where that will stop, and as for Mexico” . . . 

Pillerault, who was in one of his days of universal satis- 
faction, interrupted him with a shout of laughter. 

“ Oh, no, my dear fellow, weary us no more with your 
terrors about Mexico. Mexico will be the glorious page 
of the reign. Where the devil do you get the idea that 
the empire is sick? In January was not the loan of three 
hundred millions covered more than fifteen times over ? 


8 


MONEY. 


A crushing success. See, I give you re?idez-vous in *6y, 
yes, three years from now, when the Universal Exposition, 
upon which the emperor has just decided, will open.” 

“ I tell you that everything is going to the dogs,” de- 
clared Moser, in despair. 

“ Oh, leave us in peace ; everything is going well.” 

Salmon looked at them one after the other, smiling in 
his profound way. And Saccard, who had listenedJo 
them, traced back to the difficulties of his personal situa- 
tion this crisis upon which the empire seemed to be enter- 
ing. He once more was down : was this empire, which 
had made him, about to tumble like himself, suddenly 
tottering from the highest destiny to the most miserable ? 
Ah ! for the last twelve years how he had loved and de- 
fended this régime , in which he had felt himself live and 
grow and fill with sap, like the tree whose roots plunge 
into fitting soil. But if his brother was determined to 
tear him from it, if he was to be cut off from those who 
were exhausting the soil so rich in enjoyments, then let 
all be carried away in the grand breaking-up of nights of 
festivity! 

Now he was waiting for his asparagus, his thoughts ab- 
sent from the room in which the agitation kept on increas- 
in’ his mind invaded by memories. In a large mirror 
opposite he had just seen his face, and it had surprised 
^ge had made no inroads upon his slight person ; 
his fifty years seemed scarcely more than thirty-eight ; he 
kept the slender figure and vivacious manner of a young 
man. Even, with the advance of years, his black and 
hollowed marionettes face, with its sharp nose and small 
glittermg eyes, had, so to speak, arranged itself, had taken 
the charm of this persistent youth, so supple and so active, 
his hair still bushy, without one white thread. And irre- 
sistibly he recalled his arrival at Paris on the day after the 
coup d' Etat, the winter evening when he had alighted on 
the pavements, his pockets empty, hungry, with a perfect 
rage of appetites to satisfy. Ah ! that first trip through 
the streets, when, even before unpacking his trunk, he had 
felt the need of rushing through the city, with his boots 
down at the heels, with his greasy overcoat, to conquer it. 


MONEY. 


9 


Since that night he had often risen very high ; a river of 
millions had flowed through his hands, without his ever 
possessing fortune as a slave, as a thing of his own, of 
which he could dispose, and which he kept under lock and 
key, alive and real : falsehood and fiction had always dwelt 
in his safes, which unknown holes seemed to empty of 
their gold. And now he found himself again upon the 
pavements, as in the far-off days of the beginning, as 
young and as hungry as then, still unsatisfied, tortured 
with the same need of enjoyments and conquests. He 
had tasted of everything, and he was not satiated, having 
had neither opportunity nor time, he thought, to bite 
deeply enough into persons and things. At this hour he 
felt that wretchedness of existence, on the pavements, less 
than a beginner, whom illusion and hope would have sus- 
tained. And a fever seized him to begin all over again, 
to regain everything, to rise higher than he had ever risen, 
to place at last his foot upon the conquered city. No 
longer the lying wealth of the façade, but the solid edifice 
of fortune, the true royalty of gold enthroning itself upon 
full sacks. 

Moser’s voice, which rose again, sharp and very shrill, 
aroused Saccard for a moment from his reflections. 

“ The Mexican expedition costs fourteen millions a 
month; Thiers has proven it. And one really must be 
blind not to see that in the Chamber the majority is 
shaken. The Left now numbers thirty and some odd 
members. The emperor himself sees clearly that abso- 
lute power is becoming impossible, since he is undertak- 
ing the promotion of liberty.” 

Pillerault answered no longer, contenting himself with 
a contemptuous sneer. 

“ Yes, I know the market seems solid to you ; business 
prospers. But wait till the end. This tearing down and 
rebuilding has been carried too far in Paris, you see. The 
great public works have exhausted the treasury. As for 
the powerful houses of credit which seem to you so pros- 
perous, wait till one of them goes down, and you will see 
all the others tumble in a row. To say nothing of the 
fact that the people are getting restless. This Infrerna- 


rô 


MONEŸ. 


tional Working-People’s Association, which has just been 
founded to improve the condition of the workers, is a 
source of great fear to me. There is in France a protest, 
a revolutionary movement, which is becoming more pro- 
nounced every day. I tell you that the worm is in the 
fruit. The whole thing will burst.” 

Then there was a noisy protest. This confounded 
Moser had one of his liver crises, decidedly. But he him- 
self, while speaking, did not take his eyes from the neigh- 
boring table, where Mazaud and Amadieu continued, 
amid the noise, to converse in low tones. Gradually the 
entire room began to feel uneasy over this extended con- 
fidence. What could they have to say to each other that 
they should be whispering thus ? Undoubtedly Amadieu 
was placing orders, preparing some deal. For three days 
unfavorable rumors had been floating about regarding the 
works at Suez. Moser winked his eyes, and likewise 
lowered his voice. 

“You know the English wish to prevent them from 
working down there. Very likely there will be war.” 

This time Pillerault was shaken, by the very enormity 
of the news. It was incredible, and directly the report 
flew from table to table, acquiring the force of certainty. 
England had sent an ultimatum, demanding an immedi- 
ate cessation of work. Amadieu clearly was talking of 
that and that only with Mazaud, to whom he was giving 
an order to sell all his Suez. A buzz of panic arose in 
the atmosphere thick with fat odors, amid the increasing 
sound of clattering dishes. And at that moment, to carry 
the emotion to its height, there suddenly entered the 
stock-broker’s clerk, the little Flory, a fellow with a soft 
face eaten by a thick chestnut beard. He rushed in with 
a package of fiches* in his hand, and gave them to his 
employer, saying something in his ear. 

“Indeed!” answered Mazaud, simply, as he classified 
the fiches in his memorandum-book. 

Then, taking out his watch, he said : 

* Little cards upon which stock-brokers note the orders of their custom- 
ers. — Translator. 


MONEY. 


iî 


u Already noon ! Tell Berthier to wait for me. And 
be there yourself , go up after the despatches.” 

When Flory had gone, he resumed the conversation 
with Amadieu, taking other fiches from his pocket, which 
he placed on the table-cloth beside his plate ; and every 
minute some customer going out leaned over as he passed 
and said a word to him, which he rapidly wrote on one 
of the bits of paper, between two mouthfuls. The false 
news, which originated no one knew where, born of noth- 
ing, grew like a storm-cloud. 

“ You sell, don’t you? ” asked Moser of Salmon. . 

But the silent smile of the latter was so sharply pene- 
trating that he was left in anxiety, doubting now this ul- 
timatum from England, which he did not even know that 
he had invented. 

“For my part, I buy as long as anyone will sell,” con- 
cluded Pillerault, with his boastful temerity of a gambler 
without a system. 

His temples heated by the intoxication of the game, 
which was stimulated by this noisily-ending breakfast in 
the narrow room, Saccard had decided to eat his aspara- 
gus, again feeling irritated against Huret, whom he had 
given up. For weeks he, so prompt in coming to a de- 
cision, had been hesitating, combated by uncertainties. 
He clearly felt the imperative necessity of making him- 
self a new skin, and he had dreamed at first of an entirely 
new life, in the upper circles of administration or in poli- 
tics. Why should not the legislature have landed him 
in the cabinet, like his brother? He reproached specula- 
tion with its continual instability, huge sums being as 
quickly lost as won : never had he slept on the real mil- 
lion, owing nothing to anyone. And at this hour, when 
he submitted his conscience to examination, he said to 
himself that perhaps he was too passionate for this battle 
of money, which required so much coolness. That must 
be the reason why, after such an extraordinary life of lux- 
ury and embarrassment, he had come out empty-handed, 
burned, from these ten years of formidable traffic in the 
lands of the new Paris, in which so many others, not as 
sharp as he, had amassed colossal fortunes. Yes, perhaps 


12 


MONEY. 


he had mistaken his real aptitudes, perhaps he would tri- 
umph at one bound, in the hubbub of politics, with his 
activity and his ardent faith. Everything depended on 
his brother’s answer. If he should repulse him, if he 
should throw him back into the gulf of speculation, well, 
it would undoubtedly be so much the worse for him and 
for the rest ; he would risk the grand stroke of which he 
had not yet spoken to anyone, the enormous affair of 
which he had been dreaming for weeks, and which fright- 
ened himself, so vast was it, calculated, whether it suc- 
ceeded or whether it collapsed, to agitate the world. 

Pillerault had raised his voice. 

“ Mazaud, is it finished, the execution of Schlosser ? ” 

“ Yes,” answered the broker, “ the placard will be posted 
to-day. What would you ? Of course it is annoying, but 
I had received the most disturbing reports, and I was the 
first to anticipate it. It is necessary to make a sweep from 
time to time.” 

“ I have been told,” said Moser, “ that your colleagues, 
Jacoby and Delarocque, lost large sums by him.” 

The broker made a vague gesture. 

“ Bah ! They sacrificed those to save the rest. This 
Schlosser must belong to a band, and he will be free to go 
to infest the Bourse of Berlin or of Vienna.” 

Saccard’s eyes had fallen upon Sabatani, whose secret 
association with Schlosser chance had revealed to him : 
both were playing the well-known game, the one bulling 
and the other bearing the same stock, he who lost being 
free to share the profit of the other and disappear. But 
the young man was tranquilly paying his bill for the fine 
breakfast which he had just eaten. Then, with his caress- 
ing grace of an Oriental lined with an Italian, he came 
to shake hands with Mazaud, whose customer he was. He 
leaned over and gave an order, which the latter inscribed 
upon a fiche. 

“ He is selling his Suez,” murmured Moser. 

And aloud, yielding to a need, sick with doubt, he 
added : 

“ Say, what do you think of Suez ? ” 

The hubbub of voices sank into silence ; all the heads 


MONEY. 


13 


at the neighboring tables turned. The question summed 
up the growing anxiety. But the back of Amadieu, who 
had simply been inviting Mazaud to recommend to him 
one of his nephews, remained impenetrable, having noth- 
ing to say ; while the broker, who was beginning to be 
astonished at the orders to sell which he was receiving, 
contented himself with shaking his head, pursuing his pro- 
fessional habit of discretion. 

“ Suez, why, that’s very good ! ” declared the musical 
voice of Sabatani, who, before going out, stepped aside a 
little to gallantly shake hands with Saccard. 

And Saccard kept for a moment the feeling of this 
hand, so supple, so melting, almost feminine. In his un- 
certainty as to what course to take to begin anew his life, 
he treated all who were there as sharpers. Ah ! if they 
forced him to it, how he would hunt them down, how he 
would shear them, the trembling Mosers, the boastful Pille- 
raults, and these Salmons, hollower than gourds, and these 
Amadieus, of whom success had made geniuses. The 
noise of plates and glasses had begun again, voices grew 
hoarse, and the doors swung faster than ever, in the haste 
that devoured them all to be across the way at the game, 
if there was to be a crash in Suez. And through the win- 
dow in the middle of the square lined with cabs and en- 
cumbered with pedestrians, he saw the shining steps of 
the Bourse, as if sprinkled now by a continuous ascent of 
human insects, men correctly dressed in black, who grad- 
ually filled the colonnade ; while behind the railings ap- 
peared a few women, vaguely wandering under the chest- 
nut trees. 

Suddenly, at the moment when he was cutting the 
cheese which he had just ordered, a heavy voice made 
him raise his head. 

“ 1 ask your pardon, my dear fellow, it was impossible 
for me to come sooner.” 

At last it was Huret, a Norman of Calvados, with the 
thick broad face of a shrewd peasant who affected the air 
of a simple man. Straightway he ordered no matter 
what, the plate of the day, with a vegetable. 

“ Well ? ” asked Saccard, dryly, containing himself, 


14 


MONEY. 


n 

But the other did not hurry, watching him like a sly 
and prudent man. Then, beginning to eat, advancing his 
face and lowering his voice, he said : 

“ Well, I have seen the great man. Yes, at his house, 
this morning. Oh, his attitude regarding you was very 
pleasant, very pleasant.” 

He stopped, drank a large glass of wine, and put a po- 
tato in his mouth. 

“ Well, what then?” 

“ Then, my dear fellow, this. He is very willing to do 
anything that he can for you ; he will find you a very 
pretty situation, but not in France. Say, for instance, 
the governorship of one of our colonies, one of the good 
ones. There you would be master, a veritable little 
prince.” 

Saccard had turned pale. 

“So then, you make a laughing-matter of it? You 
mock at people ? Why not banishment at once ? Ah ! 
he wants to get rid of me. Let him look out that I do 
not end by embarrassing him in earnest.” 

Huret remained with his mouth full, in a conciliatory 
attitude. 

“ See, see, we wish only your own welfare ; leave us to 
act.” 

“ Leave myself to be suppressed, you mean. Why, 
only just now they were talking here that soon there 
would not be a single mistake left for the empire to make. 
Yes, the war with Italy, Mexico, the attitude toward 
Prussia. Upon my word, it is the truth ! So many stu- 
pidities and follies will be committed that entire France 
will rise to pitch you out.” 

At this stroke the deputy, faithful creature of the min- 
ister, became anxious, turned pale, and looked about 
him. 

“Ah, permit me, permit me, I cannot follow you. 
Rougon is an honest man ; there is no danger as long as 
he is there. No, say no more, I insist upon it that you 
misunderstand him.” 

Saccard interrupted him violently, stifling his voice 
between his set teeth. 


MONEY. 15 

“ Very well, love him, keep house together. Yes or no, 
will he grant me his patronage here, in Paris? ” 

“ In Paris, never ! ” 

Without adding a word, he rose and called the waiter, 
to pay him, while Huret, very calm and knowing his pas- 
sion, continued to swallow huge mouthfuls of bread, and 
allowed him to go, through fear of a scene. But just 
then a marked sensation ran through the room. 

Gundermann had just entered, the banker-king, the 
master of the Bourse and of the world, a man of sixty, 
whose enormous bald head, with its thick nose and round 
goggle-eyes, expressed immense obstinacy and fatigue. 
Never did he go to the Bourse, pretending even that he 
sent no official representative ; neither did he ever break- 
fast in a public place. Only, from time to time, he hap- 
pened, as on this occasion, to show himself at Cham- 
peaux’ restaurant, where he sat down at one of the 
tables simply to be served a glass of Vichy on a plate. 
A sufferer from dyspepsia for twenty years, he took 
absolutely no nourishment except milk. 

Straightway all the waiters were on the move to bring 
the glass of water, and all those eating at the tables sud- 
denly became very humble. Moser, with a crushed air, 
contemplated this man who knew the secrets and made 
stock rise or fall at his will, as God makes the thunder. 
Pillerault himself saluted him, having faith only in the 
irresistible force of the billion. It was half past twelve, 
and Mazaud, who was hurriedly leaving Amadieu, re- 
turned and bent double before the banker, from whom he 
sometimes had the honor to receive an order. Many cus- 
tomers, similarly on the point of departing, remained 
standing, surrounding the god, forming about him a court 
of deferential spines, amid the confusion of the soiled ta- 
ble-cloths ; and with veneration they watched him take 
the glass of water in his trembling hand and carry it to 
his colorless lips. 

Formerly, in the course of his speculations in Monceaux 
lands, Saccard had had discussions and even a quarrel 
with Gundermann. They could not understand each 
other, the one passionate and fond of the pleasures of life, 


i6 


MONEY. 


the other sober and coldly logical. Consequently the 
former, in his fit of passion, further exasperated by this 
triumphal entrance, was going away, when the other called 
him. 

“ Say, then, my good friend, is it true, you intend to 
abandon business? Really, you act wisely ; it is the best 
way.” 

To Saccard this was a lash directly across his face. He 
straightened up his little body, and replied in a clear 
voice, as sharp as a sword : 

“ I establish a house of credit with a capital of twenty- 
five millions, and I expect to call upon you soon.” 

And he went out, leaving behind him the violent hub- 
bub of the room, where all were jostling each other, in 
order not to fail at the opening of the Bourse. Ah ! to 
succeed at last, again to plant his heel upon these people 
who turned their backs upon him, and to struggle for 
power with this king of gold, and some day perhaps beat 
him ! He had not decided to launch his great enterprise, 
and he stood in surprise at the phrase which the necessity 
of answering had drawn from him. But could he tempt 
fortune elsewhere, now that his brother abandoned him, 
and that men and things were galling him to throw him 
back into the struggle, as the bleeding bull is brought 
back into the arena? 

For a moment he stood trembling, on the edge of the 
sidewalk. It was the active hour when the life of Paris 
seems to flow into that central square, between the Rue 
Montmartre and the Rue Richelieu, the two choking 
arteries that carry the crowd. From the four crossways 
opening into the four corners of the square, uninterrupted 
floods of carriages poured in, lining the pavements, amid 
the eddies of a tumultuous crowd of people on foot. The 
two rows of cabs at the stand, along the railings, were 
continually breaking and reforming ; while, on the Rue 
Vivienne, the victorias of the remisiers stretched away in 
a compact line, above which the drivers towered, with 
reins in hand, ready to whip up at the first signal. The 
invaded steps and peristyle were black with a swarm of 
frock coats ; and from the coulisse , already installed under 


MONEY. 


I/ 


the clock and at work, arose the clamor of offers and de- 
mands, that sound of the tide of speculation, victorious 
over the rumble of the city. Passers-by turned their 
heads, curious and fearful as to what might be going on 
there, this mystery of financial operations into which few 
French brains penetrate, these sudden ruins and fortunes, 
not to be explained, amid this gesticulation and these 
barbarian cries. And he, on the edge of the gutter, deaf- 
ened by the distant voices, elbowed by the jostling, hur- 
rying crowd, dreamed once more of the royalty of gold, 
in this fever-infested district, where the Bourse, from one 
o’clock till three, beats like an enormous heart, in the 
middle. 

But since his discomfiture he had not dared to re-enter 
the Bourse; and on this day also a feeling of suffering 
vanity, the certainty of being received as a beaten man, 
prevented him from ascending the steps. Like lovers 
driven from the alcove of a mistress, whom they still 
desire, even while thinking that they hate her, he inevi- 
tably returned to the spot, making the tour of the colon- 
nade under various pretexts, entering the garden, and 
walking at a stroller’s pace, in the shade of the chestnut- 
trees. In this sort of dusty square, without grass or 
flowers, where swarmed upon the benches, among the 
urinals and the newspaper stands, a mixture of suspicious 
speculators and bareheaded women of the neighborhood 
nursing their babies, he affected a disinterested saunter, 
raised his eyes, and watched, filled with the furious 
thought that he was besieging the monument, enclosing 
it in a narrowing circle, in order some day to re-enter it 
triumphantly. 

He entered at the right hand corner, under the trees 
opposite the Rue de la Banque, and directly he fell upon 
the little Bourse of unclassed values, the “ Wet Feet,” as 
they call, with ironical contempt, those curb-stone brokers, 
who quote in the open air, in the mud on rainy days, the 
stocks of dead corporations. There, in a tumultuous 
group, were gathered unclean Jews, with fat, shining faces 
and dried-up profiles of voracious birds, an extraordinary 
assemblage of typical noses, drawn together as by a prey, 


i8 


MONEY. 


falling upon each other amid guttural cries, and seemingly 
ready to devour each other. He was passing, when he 
noticed, a little apart, a stout man, engaged in looking in 
the sunlight at a ruby, which he held in the air, delicately, 
in his enormous and dirty hands. 

“ It is you, Busch ! You remind me that I was intend- 
ing to call at your place.” 

Busch, who kept an agency-office on the Rue Feydeau 
at the corner of the Rue Vivienne, had on several occa- 
sions been very useful to him in difficult situations. He 
remained in ecstasy, examining the water of the precious 
stone, his broad flat face upturned and his heavy gray 
eyes looking as if extinguished by the bright light, and 
one could see, twisted like a cord, the white cravat which 
he always wore ; while his second-hand frock coat, for- 
merly superb, but extraordinarily worn and covered with 
grease spots, reached up to his light hair, which fell in 
scattered and rebellious locks over his bare skull. Hishat, 
browned by the sun and washed by showers, had become 
ageless. 

At last he decided to come down to earth again. 

“Ah! Monsieur Saccard, you are taking a little walk 
in this vicinity ? ” 

“ Yes, I have a letter in the Russian language, a letter 
from a Russian banker, located at Constantinople. It 
occurred to me that your brother could translate it for 
me.” 

Busch, who, with an unconsciously gentle movement, 
was still rolling the ruby in his right hand, extended the 
left, saying that the translation would be sent hirn that 
very evening. But Saccard explained that it was only a 
matter of ten lines. 

“ I will go up ; your brother will read it to me at once.” 

And he was interrupted by the arrival of an enormous 
woman, Madame Méchain, well known to the frequenters 
of the Bourse, one of those fierce and miserable female 
speculators whose fat hands mess in all sorts of suspicious 
jobs. 

Her full-moon face, puffy and red, with its little blue 
eyes, its little lost nose, and its little mouth whence came 


MONEY. 


19 


a child’s piping voice, seemed to project from an old mauve 
hat, tied askew with garnet strings; and her gigantic 
bosom and dropsical belly stuffed her green poplin dress, 
eaten with mud and turned yellow. She carried in her 
arms an immense old black leather bag, as deep as a valise, 
which she never trusted out of her hand. On this occa- 
sion the bag, swollen to bursting, drew her down at the 
right, causing her to lean like a tree. 

“ Here you are ! ” said Busch, who was waiting for her. 

“ Yes, and I have received the Vendôme papers ; I bring 
them.” 

“ Good ! Let us be off to my place. There’s nothing 
to be done here to-day.” 

Saccard had bestowed a vacillating glance upon the vast 
leather bag. He knew that into it would inevitably fall 
the unclassed stocks, the shares of bankrupt societies, in 
which the Wet Feet still speculate, shares issued at five 
hundred francs for which they dispute with each other at 
twenty sous, or even ten, in the vague hope of an im- 
probable rise, or more practically as a rascally merchan- 
dise, which they sell at a profit to bankrupts desirous of 
swelling their liabilities. In the murderous battles of 
finance the Méchain was the raven that followed the 
armies on the march ; not a company, not a large house 
of credit collapsed, but she appeared with her bag, sniff- 
ing the air, awaiting the corpses, even in the prosperous 
hours of triumphant issues. For she well knew that ruin 
was inevitable, that the day of massacre would come, 
when there would be dead to eat, shares to pick up for 
nothing in the mud and the blood. And he, who was re- 
volving in his mind a grand banking project, gave a slight 
shudder and was crossed by a presentiment, at sight of 
this bag, this charnel-house of depreciated values, into 
which passed all the dirty paper swept from the Bourse. 

As Busch was taking the old woman away, Saccard 
stopped him. 

“ Then I can go up? I am certain of finding your 
brother ? ” 

The Jew’s eyes softened, expressing an anxious sur- 
prise. 


20 


MONEY. 


« My brother, why, certainly! Where do you expect 
him to be ? ” 

“ Very well, then ; I will go up directly.” 

And Saccard, allowing them to move away, continued 
his slow walk, beside the trees, toward the Rue Notre- 
Dame-des-Victoires. This side of the square was one of 
the most frequented, occupied by business houses and 
office industries, whose gilt signs were flaming in the sun- 
light. Curtains were flapping at the balconies ; a whole 
family from the country stood gaping at the window of a 
furnished hotel. Mechanically he raised his head, and 
looked at these people, whose amazement made him smile, 
comforting him with the thought that there would always 
be investors to be found in the provinces. Behind his 
back the clamor of the Bourse, the continuous sound of 
the far-off tide, kept up, obsessing him, as if threatening 
shortly to swallow him up. 

But a new meeting stopped him. 

“ What, Jordan, you at the Bourse ? ” he cried, shaking 
hands with a tall dark young man, with a small moustache 
and a determined and wilful air. 

Jordan, whose father, a Marseilles banker, had formerly 
committed suicide in consequence of disastrous specula- 
tions, had been beating the pavements of Paris for ten 
years, with the fever of literature upon him, in a brave 
struggle against black poverty. One of his cousins, estab- 
lished at Plassans, where he knew Saccard’s family, had 
formerly recommended him to Saccard, in the days when 
the latter received All-Paris at his mansion in the Parc 
Monceaux. 

“ Oh ! at the Bourse, never ! ” answered the young man, 
with a violent gesture, as if driving away the tragic mem- 
ory of his father. 

Then, beginning to smile, he added : 

“You know that I am married. Yes, to a little friend 
of my childhood. We were engaged in the days when I 
was rich, and she has persisted just the same in wanting 
the poor devil that I have become.” 

“ Exactly, I received the wedding cards,” said Saccard. 
“ And do you know that I used to be in business relations 


MONEY. 


21 


with your father-in-law, Monsieur Maugendre, when he 
had his awning factory at Villette ? He must have made 
a pretty fortune there.” 

This conversation took place near a bench, and Jordan 
interrupted it to introduce a short, stout gentleman, of 
military bearing, who was sitting there, and with whom 
he was talking when Saccard approached. 

“ Captain Chave, an uncle of my wife. Madame Mau- 
gendre, my mother-in-law, is a Chave, of Marseilles.” 

The Captain had risen, and Saccard bowed. The latter 
knew by sight this apoplectic face, on a neck stiffened from 
wearing a choker, one of those types of petty gamblers 
on a cash basis, whom one is certain to find there every 
day, from one o’clock to three. It is a game of small 
winnings, an almost sure profit of fifteen to twenty francs, 
which must be realized in the same day’s Bourse. 

Jordan had added, with his good-natured laugh, to ex- 
plain his presence : 

“A ferocious speculator, my uncle, with whom I some- 
times stop to shake hands in passing.” 

“ Why,” said the Captain, simply, “ one is obliged to 
speculate, since the government, with its pension, leaves 
me to die of hunger.” 

Then Saccard, whom the young man interested by his 
courage in living, asked him how things were going in the 
world of literature. And Jordan, still good-humored, 
described the installation of his poor household in a fifth 
story of the Avenue de Clichy ; for the Maugendres, who 
distrusted a poet, thinking that they had gone very far 
in consenting to the marriage, had given nothing, under 
the pretext that their daughter, after them, would have 
their fortune intact, fattened by their savings. No, liter- 
ature did not feed its man ; he had the project of a novel 
which he could not find time to write, and he had been 
obliged to enter into journalism, where he knocked off 
anything that his position called for, from chroniques to 
court-reports and even local happenings. 

“Well,” said Saccard, “if I start my great enterprise, 
perhaps I shall need you. So come and see me.” 

After bowing, he turned in behind the Bourse. There 


MONEŸ. 


22 

at last the distant clamor, the howling of the game, 
ceased behind his heels, and was nothing but a vague 
hum, lost in the rumble of the square. On this side the 
steps were equally invaded by people ; but the brokers’ 
room, whose red hangings were visible at the high win- 
dows, isolated from the hubbub of the main hall the col- 
onnade, where the more fastidious and richer speculators 
were sitting comfortably in the shade, some alone, others 
in little groups, transforming into a sort of club this vast 
peristyle open to the sky. The rear of the monument 
was something like the rear of a theatre, the stage en- 
trance, with the suspicious and comparatively quiet street, 
this Rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires, occupied entirely by 
wine-merchants, cafés, beer-saloons, taverns, swarming 
with a special class of customers, strangely mingled. The 
signs indicated also an evil growth, pushed to the very 
brink of the great cloaca near by: disreputable insurance 
companies, blackmailing financial journals, societies, banks 
offices, counting-houses, the entire series of modest cut- 
throats, installed in shops or second-story chambers as 
large as one’s hand. On the sidewalks, in the middle of 
the street, everywhere, men were prowling, waiting, as if 
at the corner of a wood. 

Saccard had stopped inside the railings, lifting his eyes 
to the door leading to the brokers’ room, with the pierc- 
ing look of a commander of an army examining in all its 
aspects the place which he proposes to storm, when a tall 
fellow, coming out of a tavern, crossed the street, and 
approached him with a very low bow. 

Ah ! Monsieur Saccard, have you nothing for me ? 
I have finally left the Crédit Mobilier, and am looking 
for a situation. s 

Jantrou was an old teacher, who had left Bordeaux for 
Bans in consequence of a rather shady history. Obliged 
to abandon the University, and left without standing, 
but a handsome fellow with his black fan-shaped beard 
and his tendency to early baldness, and lettered, intelli- 
gent, and amiable besides, he had brought up at the 
Bourse at the age of twenty-eight, and had dragged and 
soiled himself there for ten years as a remisier, making 


MONEY. 


23 


scarcely more money than was necessary for his vices. 
And to-day, quite bald and as disconsolate as a prosti- 
tute whose wrinkles threaten her with loss of her means 
of support, he was still awaiting the opportunity which / 
should start him on the road to success and fortune. 

Saccard, on seeing him so humble, recalled with bitter- 
ness the salutation of Sabatani at Champeaux’ : deci4- 
edly the disreputable and the unsuccessful alone remained 
friendly to him. But for the keen intelligence of this 
man he was not without esteem, and he well knew that 
the desperate make the bravest troops, those ready to 
dare everything, having everything to gain. So he re- 
ceived him cordially. 

« A situation,” he repeated. “ Well, perhaps that can 
be found. Come and see me.” 

“ Rue Saint-Lazare now, isn’t it ? ” 

“ Yes, Rue Saint-Lazare; in the morning.” 

They talked. Jantrou was very hostile toward the 
Bourse, repeating that one Rad to be a knave to succeed 
there, with the rancor of a man who had not been lucky 
in his knavery. It was over ; he wanted to try something 
else ; it seemed to him that, thanks to his University cul- 
ture and his knowledge of the world, he could make a fine 
place for himself in the administration. Saccard nodded 
approval. And, as they were now outside the rail- 
ings, walking along the sidewalk toward the Rue Brong- 
niart, both became interested in a sombre coupé, a very 
correct equipage, which had stopped in the street, with 
the horse turned toward the Rue Montmartre. Though 
the back of the coachman, perched on his seat, was as 
motionless as a rock, they noticed that a woman’s head 
twice appeared at the coach-door and then quickly disap- 
peared. Suddenly the head leaned out, forgetting itself, 
giving a long backward look of impatience in the direc- 
tion of the Bourse. 

« What ! the Baroness Sandorff? ” whispered Saccard. 

It was a very strange dark head, with burning black 
eyes beneath bruised eyelids, a passionate face with blood- 
red lips, and marred only by a nose that was too long. 
Its possessor seemed very pretty, and precociously ma- 


24 


MONEY. 


ture for her twenty-five years, with her look of a Bac- 
chante clothed by the foremost dressmakers of the 
reign. 

“ Yes, the Baroness,*' repeated Jantrou. “ I knew her 
when she was a young girl, at her father’s, the Count de 
Ladricourt. Oh ! an inveterate speculator, and revolting- 
ly brutal. I went to take his orders every morning ; one 
day he came near giving me a beating. I shed no tears 
when he died in an apoplectic fit, ruined after a series of 
lamentable bankruptcies. The little one then had to 
make up her mind to marry Baron Sandorff, counsellor to 
the Austrian embassy, who was thirty-five years older 
than herself, and whom she had positively driven mad 
with her fiery glances.” 

“ I know,” said Saccard, simply. 

Again the head of the Baroness had plunged back into 
the coupé, but almost immediately it reappeared, more 
ardent than before, the neck twisted to command a com- 
pleter view of the square. 

“She speculates, doesn’t she?” 

“ Oh 1 like a crazy woman ! Whenever there is a crisis, 
she is to be seen there, in her carriage, watching the mar- 
ket, feverishly taking notes in her memorandum-book 
giving orders ... But see ! it was Massias that she was 
waiting for : here he comes to join her.” 

In fact, Massias was running up as fast as his short legs 
would carry him, his quotations in his hand, and they saw 
him lean his elbows on the carriage-door, and plunge in 
his head in turn, in full conference with the Baroness. 
Then, as they stepped away a little that they might not 
be caught watching them, and as the remisier came back 
still on the run, they called him. He at first gave a 
glance back, to make sure that he was hidden by the cor- 
ner of the street ; then he stopped short, out of breath 
his florid face congested, but gay nevertheless, with his 
big blue goggle-eyes, 

“And what is the matter with them all?” he cried. 

‘ ’? Suez tumbling. There are rumors of a war 

with England. A piece of news that revolutionizes them, 
and that comes no one knows whence. I beg you to tell 


MONEY. 25 

me, who can have invented this war story? Or did it in- 
vent itself all alone? In short, a real dog’s bite.” 

“ The lady bites still? ” remarked Jantrou. 

“ Oh, madly ! I am carrying her orders to Nathan- 
sohn.” 

Saccard, who was listening, dropped a reflection out 
loud. 

“ It is true, then ; I have been told that Nathansohn 
had entered the coulisse .” 

“ A very agreeable fellow, Nathansohn,” repeated Jan- 
trou, “ and one who deserves to succeed. We were together 
at the Crédit Mobilier. But he will succeed, he, for he 
is a Jew. His father, an Austrian, is established at Besan- 
çon, a watchmaker, I believe. You know the fever took 
him one day, down there, at the Crédit, as he saw how 
things were managed. He said to himself that it wasn’t 
such a trick, after all ; that one had only to get a room 
and open a wicket ; and he has opened a wicket. How 
is it with you, Massias, are you contented ? ” 

“ Oh, contented! You have been there ; you are right 
in saying that it is necessary to be a Jew ; otherwise it is 
useless to try to understand ; there is no skill in it ; it is 
only black ill-luck. What a dirty trade ! But when one 
is in it, he stays. And then, I have still good legs; I 
hope all the same.” 

And he started off running and laughing. He was 
said to be the son of a Lyons magistrate, struck with in- 
dignity, who had fallen himself into the Bourse, after the 
disappearance of his father, not wishing to continue his 
law studies. 

Saccard and Jantrou went back, with short steps, to- 
ward the Rue Brongniart, and there they found again the 
coupé of the Baroness ; but the windows were raised, and 
the mysterious carriage seemed empty, while the coach- 
man seemed more motionless than ever, in this waiting 
which often lasted till the last quotations. 

“ She is devilishly exciting,” resumed Saccard, brutally. 
“ I understand the old Baron.” 

Jantrou’s face wore a singular smile. 

“ Oh ! the Baron ! I imagine that he has had enough 


26 


MONEV. 


long ago. And he is very stingy, they say. And then, 
do you know with whom she has placed herself, in order 
to pay her bills, speculation never sufficing?” 

“ No.” 

“ With Delcambre.” 

“ Delcambre, the attorney-general l that tall, dry man, 
so yellow and stiff ! a future minister ! Ah ! I should very 
much like to see them together ! ” 

And the two, very good-humored and greatly enlivened, 
separated with a vigorous handshake, after one had re- 
minded the other that he should take the liberty of call- 
ing on him shortly. 

As soon as he found himself alone again, Saccard was 
drawn back by the loud voice of the Bourse, which was 
swelling with the persistency of the returning tide. He 
had turned the corner, and was going back toward the 
Rue Vivienne, by .this side of the square, to which the 
absence of cafés lent a severe aspect. He passed by the 
Chamber of Commerce, the Post Office, and the great 
advertising agencies, more and more deafened and fever- 
ish as he came back toward the principal façade. And 
when by an oblique look he could command a view of 
the peristyle, he made a new pause, as if reluctant to 
finish his circuit of the colonnade, this sort of passionate 
investiture in which he enclosed it. There, on this broad- 
ening of the pavement, life. spread and shone: a flood of 
consumers invaded the cafés, the pastry-cook’s shop did 
not empty, and the window-displays attracted the crowd, 
especially that of a goldsmith, flaming with large pieces 
of silver-plate. And through the four cross ways, at the 
four corners, it seemed as if the river of cabs and pedes- 
trians was increasing, in an inextricable entanglement ; 
while the omnibus-station aggravated the embarrassment’ 
and the carriages of the remisiers , standing in a line, barred 
the sidewalk, almost from one end of the railing to the 
other. But his eyes were fixed on the high steps, where 
frock-coats ran together in the sunlight. Then they went 
up toward the columns, into the compact mass, a black 
swarm, scarcely lighted by the pale spots of the faces. All 
were standing; there were no chairs visible; the curve 


MONEV. 


17 

formed by the coulisse , under the clock, could be divined 
only by a sort of boiling, a fury of gestures and words 
that shook the air. Toward the left a group of bankers 
engaged in exchanging stocks, and in operations in foreign 
exchange and English checks, remained calmer, continu- 
ally traversed by the entering line of people on their way 
to the telegraph-office. Even under the lateral galleries 
the speculators overflowed, crushing each other in con- 
tinual eddies ; and between the columns, resting on the 
balustrades, there were some who presented belly or back, 
as if they were at home, against the velvet of a box. The 
trembling and rumbling, like that of a steam-engine in 
motion, increasingly agitated the entire Bourse, in a vacil- 
lating flame. Suddenly he recognized the remisier Massias, 
who descended the steps at full speed and then leaped 
into his carriage, the driver lashing his horse into a gallop. 

Then Saccard felt his fists clench ; and, violently tear- 
ing himself away, he turned into the Rue Vivienne, cross- 
ing the street in order to reach the corner of the Rue Fey- 
deau, where Busch’s office was located. He had just 
remembered the Russian letter which he had to get trans- 
lated. But, as he was entering, a young man, standing in 
front of the stationer’s shop on the ground floor, bowed 
to him ; and he recognized Gustave Sédille, son of a silk 
manufacturer in the Rue des Jeûneurs, whom his father 
had placed with Mazaud, to study the mechanism of 
finance. He smiled paternally upon this tall, elegant 
young fellow, strongly suspecting what he was doing 
there, on guard. Conin’s stationer’s shop had supplied 
note-books to the entire Bourse since the little Madame 
Conin began to help her husband, the stout Conin, who 
never left his back-shop, attending to the manufacture, 
while she continually went and came, tending at the 
counter and doing errands outside. She was plump, 
blonde, and pink, a real little curly-haired sheep, her hair 
being light and silky, and her manner pleasing, coaxing, 
and invariably gay. She was very fond of her husband, 
it was said, which did not prevent her, when some specu- 
lator among the customers pleased her, from being affec- 
tionate ; but not for money, solely for pleasure, and only 


28 


MONEY. 


once, in a friendly house in the vicinity, as the story ran. 
At any rate, those whom she made happy must have 
showed discretion and gratitude, for she remained adored 
and honored, unsurrounded by any wicked scandal. And 
the stationer’s shop continued to prosper; it was a corner 
of real happiness. As he passed, Saccard saw Madame 
Conin smiling at Gustave, through the window. What 
a pretty little sheep ! The sight gave him a delightful 
sensation, as of a caress. However, he went upstairs. 

For fifteen years Busch had occupied a small tenement, 
consisting of two chambers and a kitchen, high up, on the 
fifth floor. Born at Nancy, of German parents, he had 
come to this place from his native town, and had gradu- 
ally extended his circle of business, of extraordinary com- 
plexity, without feeling the need of a larger office, aban- 
doning to his brother Sigismond the room fronting the 
street, and contenting himself with the little room looking 
out upon the court, in which old papers, briefs, and pack- 
ages of all kinds were so piled up that there was no room 
left except for a single chair beside the desk. One of his 
principal lines of business was the traffic in depreciated 
stocks , he centralized them, serving as an intermediary 
between the little Bourse of the “ Wet Feet ” and the 
bankrupts who have holes to fill in their balance-sheets. 
Consequently he followed the market, buying sometimes 
directly, but supplied for the most part with the stocks 
that were brought to him. But, in addition to usury and 
a secret commerce in jewels and precious stones, he es- 
pecially occupied himself with the purchase of claims. It 
was that which filled his office till the walls cracked, it 
was that which sent him forth to the four corners of Paris 
sniffing, watching, with relations in all circles. A* soon 
as he heard of a failure, he hurried off, prowled around 
the assignee, and ended by buying everything from which 
any value could immediately be realized. He watched 
the notaries offices, awaited the distribution of inherit- 
ances difficult of settlement, and attended the sales of 
hopeless claims.. He himself published advertisements 
to attract impatient creditors who preferred to get a few 
sous directly rather than run the risk of prosecuting their 


MONEY. 


2 9 


debtors. And, from these manifold sources, paper arrived 
in veritable basketfuls, the continually increasing heap 
of a rag-picker of finance, — unpaid notes, unfulfilled con- 
tracts, unredeemed pledges, unkept engagements. Then, 
within, began the sorting out, the thrust of the fork into 
this mess of spoiled and broken victuals, requiring a special 
and very delicate scent. In this sea of disappeared or in- 
solvent creditors it was necessary to make a choice, to 
avoid too much waste of effort. As a principle, he pro- 
fessed that every claim, even the most compromised, may 
become good again, and he had a series of briefs admi- 
rably classified, to which corresponded an index of names, 
which he read over from time to time, to fix it in his 
memory. But, among the insolvent, he naturally followed 
most closely those who seemed to him to have chances of 
approaching fortune: his inquiries stripped people bare, 
penetrated family secrets, took note of rich relatives, means 
of existence, and especially of new employments permit- 
ting the putting in of oppositions. Often he thus al- 
lowed a man to ripen for years, in order to strangle him 
at the first success. As for the debtors who disappeared, 
they stimulated him to still greater energy, threw him 
into a fever of continual search, with his eyes on signs 
and on names printed in the newspapers, hunting for ad- 
dresses as a dog hunts for game. And as soon as he held 
the disappeared and the insolvent in his clutches, he be- 
came ferocious, ate them up with costs, emptied them 
until they bled, getting a hundred francs for what had 
cost him ten sous, brutally explaining the risks that he 
ran as a speculator, forced to make out of those whom 
he caught what he pretended to lose by those who slipped 
through his fingers, like smoke. 

In this hunt for debtors the Méchain was one of the 
aids whom Busch was fondest of employing ; for, though 
he had to have a little band of people in his service to 
beat up the game, he lived in distrust of these infamous 
and famishing assistants ; whereas the Méchain had a 
house of her own, and possessed behind the Butte Mont- 
martre a whole city, — the City of Naples, a vast tract of 
land covered with tumble-down shanties which she let by 


30 


MONEY. 


the month,— a corner of frightful poverty, of people starv- 
mg amid a heap of filth, pig-stys in dispute, and from 
which she pitilessly swept the tenants with their dirt- 
heaps as soon as they ceased to pay. What devoured 
her, what ate up the profits of her city, was her unfortu- 
nate passion for speculation. And she had also the taste 
for financial losses, ruins, fires, amid which melted jewels 
can be stolen. When Busch charged her with a bit of 
information to obtain or a debtor to dislodge, she some- 
times put into it something of herself, made expenditures 
on her own account, just for the pleasure. She called 
herself a widow, but no one had ever known her husband. 
She came no one knew whence, and she seemed always 
to have been about fifty years old, overflowing, with her 
piping voice of a little girl. 

On this occasion, as soon as the Méchain had taken 
her seat on the single chair, the room was full, as if 
corked up by this last bundle of flesh, fallen in this place 
Busch, a prisoner, at his desk, seemed buried, showing 
only his square head above the sea of papers. 

“ He l' e ’” said she, emptying her old bag of the enor- 
mous pile of paper that distended it, “ here is what Fav- 
eux sends me from Vendôme. He has bought everything 
for you in that Charpier failure, which you told me to 
call to his attention. One hundred and ten francs.” 

Fayeux, whom she called her cousin, had just estab- 
lished an office down there as a collector of dividends 
His ostensible business was to receive the coupons of the 
small bond-holders of the neighborhood; and, as the de- 
positary of these coupons and of cash, he speculated in 
the most frenzied manner. 

Tîlu countr y is n’t worth much,” muttered Busch, 

u he « y e L dlSCOvenes to be raade there a» the same.” 

He sniffed the papers, and began to sort them out with 
an expert hand and classify them in groups, in accordance 
with a first estimation, by the odor. His flat face grew 
dark and wore an expression of sulky disappointment. 

Humph . there is no fat here, nothing to bite. For- 
tunately it did not cost much. Here are some notes 
And more notes. If they are signed by young people, 


MONEY. 


31 


and if these have come to Paris, perhaps we shall catch 
them.” 

But he gave a slight exclamation of surprise. 

“ Hello ! what’s this? ” 

He had just read, at the bottom of a sheet of stamped 
paper, the signature of the Count de Beauvilliers, and 
the sheet contained only three lines, in an old man’s 
large handwriting : “ I promise to pay the sum of ten 
thousand francs to Mademoiselle Léonie Cron, on the 
day of her majority.” 

•“ The Count de Beauvilliers,” he continued, slowly, 
thinking aloud ; “ yes, he had farms, an entire estate, in 
the vicinity of Vendôme. He died of a hunting accident, 
leaving a wife and two children in straitened circum- 
stances. I held some of his notes formerly, and found 
difficulty in getting them paid. A reckless dog, not good 
for much.” 

Suddenly he burst into a loud laugh, reconstructing the 
story. 

« Ah ! the old sharper, he played the little one a nice 
trick. She was unwilling, and he decided her with this 
bit of paper, which was legally valueless. Then he died. 
Let me see, this is dated 1854, ten years ago. The girl 
must be of age now. But how could this acknowledgment 
have fallen into Charpier’s hands? A grain merchant, 
this Charpier, who lent money by the week. Undoubtedly 
the girl, to get a little cash, left this on deposit with him, 
or perhaps he had undertaken to collect it.” 

“ But,” interrupted the Méchain, “ this is very good ; a 
real stroke of luck.” 

Busch shrugged his shoulders disdainfully. 

« Oh, no, I tell you that in law it is worth nothing. If 
I should present it to the heirs, they might tell me to go 
about my business, for it would be necessary to prove that 
the money is really due. Only, if we find the girl, I hope 
to induce them to be agreeable and come to an under- 
standing with us, in order to avoid disagreeable scandal. 
You understand? Look for this Léonie Cron ; write to 
Fayeux, and tell him to hunt her up down there. Then 
we may have reason to laugh,” 


32 


MONEY. 


He had made two piles of the papers, with the intention 
of examining them thoroughly when he should be alone, 
and he sat motionless, with his hands open, one on each 
pile. 

After a period of silence, the Méchain resumed : 

“I have been working on the Jordan notes. I really 
thought that I had found our man again. He has been 
employed somewhere, and now he is writing for the news- 
P^P ers * But they receive you so badly at the newspaper- 
offices ; they refuse to give you addresses. And besides, I 
think that he does not sign his articles with his real 
name.” 


Without a word, Busch had stretched out his arm to 
take the Jordan documents from their alphabetic place. 
There were six notes of fifty francs each, dated five years 
back and maturing monthly,— a total sum of three hundred 
francs, — which the young man had given to a tailor in 
days of poverty. Unpaid on presentation, the notes had 
been swollen by enormous legal costs, and the envelope 
containing them was overflowing with formidable records 
of legal processes. At the present hour the debt had 
reached the sum of seven hundred and thirty francs and 
fifteen centimes. 


“If he is a fellow with prospects,” muttered Busch, “we 
shall pinch him one of these days.” 

Then, a sequence of ideas undoubtedly forming in his 
mind, he cried : 


the Slcardot afïair > are we to abandon that? ” 
1 he Méchain lifted her fat arms to heaven with a sor- 
rowful gesture. A current of despair seemed to run 
through her whole monstrous person. 

Oh, Lord God i she wailed, with her piping voice * 

“some day it will cost me my skin.” ’ 

i ^jcardot affair was a very romantic story which 
she loved to tell. A cousin of hers, Octavie Chavaille a 
tardy daughter of her father’s sister, had been caught at 
the age of sixteen, one evening, on the stairs, in a house 
in the Rue de la Harpe, whereshe and her mother occupied 
a small tenement on the sixth floor. The worst of it was 
that the gentleman, a married man, who with his wife had 


MONEY. 


33 


occupied hardly more than a week a chamber sub-let to 
them by a lady on the second floor, had shown such amo- 
rous passion that the poor Octavie, thrown back with too 
eager a hand against the edge of a step, had had her 
shoulder dislocated. Hence the just wrath of the mother, 
who came very near raising a frightful scandal, in spite of 
the tears of the little one, who confessed that she had 
been very willing, that it was an accident, and that it 
would give her too much pain if the gentleman should be 
sent to prison. Then the mother, consenting to silence, 
contented herself with requiring of the latter the sum of 
six hundred francs, divided into twelve notes of fifty francs 
each, payable monthly for a year ; and, far from being a 
hard bargain, it was a very modest one, for her daughter, 
who was finishing her apprenticeship as a seamstress, 
could no longer earn anything, sick in bed, a heavy ex- 
pense, and so badly cared for besides that, the muscles of 
her arm having contracted, she became partially crippled. 
Before the end of the first month the gentleman disap- 
peared, without leaving his address. And misfortunes 
continued, falling thick as hail : Octavie gave birth to a 
boy, lost her mother, and fell into a disreputable life and 
black poverty. Stranded in the City of Naples at her 
cousin’s, she dragged through the streets to the age of 
twenty-six, unable to use her arm, sometimes selling 
lemons in the markets, and at other times disappearing 
for weeks with men, who sent her back drunk and black 
and blue. At last, the year before, she had had the good 
luck to die after an escapade more adventurous than usual. 
And the Méchain had had to keep the child, Victor; and 
there remained of all this adventure only the twelve un- 
paid notes, signed Sicardot. They had never been able 
to learn more of him : the gentleman called himself Si- 
cardot. 

With a new gesture, Busch took down the Sicardot 
papers, contained in a thin envelope of gray paper. No 
costs had accumulated ; there were only the twelve notes. 

“If only Victor were obliging!” explained the old 
woman, grievously. “ But just imagine, a frightful child. 
Ah ! it is hard to be encumbered with such inheritances, 


34 


MONEY. 


—an urchin who will end on the scaffold, and these bits of 
paper which will never bring me anything.” 

Busch kept his heavy pale eyes obstinately fixed upon 
the notes. How many times he had thus studied them, 
hoping in some unnoticed detail, in the form of the letters 
or in the grain of the stamped paper, to discover some 
clew. He maintained that this pointed and fine hand- 
writing could not be unknown to him. 

It is curious, he repeated once more, “ I have cer~ 
tainly seen somewhere such as and os, so elongated that 
they resemble zs.” 

Just then came a knock; and he asked the Méchain 
to stretch out her hand to open the door ; for the room 
fronted directly upon the staircase. One had to pass 
through the room in order to get to the other, the one 
that fronted on thé street. As for the kitchen, it was a 
stifling hole, on the other side of the landing. 

“ Come in, Monsieur.” 

And Saccard entered. He was smiling, inwardly 
amused by the copper plate screwed upon the door, and 
bearing in large black letters the words : Disputed Claims. 

Oh, yes, Monsieur Saccard, you come for that trans- 
lation. My brother is there, in the other room. Enter 
enter. ’ 


But the Méchain absolutely barred the passage, and 
she scrutinized the new comer, with an absorbed air of 
increasing surprise. To make the entrance required con- 
siderable manoeuvring: he drew back to the stairs, and 
she stepped out, effacing herself upon the landing, so that 
he could enter and finally reach the adjoining room, into 
winch he disappeared. During these complicated move- 
ments she had not taken her eyes off him. 

| \ she whis P ered > overcome, “this Monsieur Sac- 
card, 1 had never so near a view of him before. Victor 
is the perfect image of him.” 

Not understanding at first, Busch looked at her. Then 

a sudden illumination struck him, and he uttered a 
smothered oath. ’ uttered a 

“Thunder of God! that’s it; I knew well that I had 
seen that somewhere.” aa 


MONEY. 


35 


And this time he rose, rummaged among the papers, 
and finally found a letter that Saccard had written him 
the year before, to ask him for an extension in favor of 
an insolvent lady. Quickly he compared the handwriting 
of the notes with that of this letter. The as and the <?s 
were clearly the same, though they had grown more 
pointed with the lapse of time; and there was also an 
evident identity of capital letters. 

“ It is he, it is he,” he repeated. “ Only let me see, 
why Sicardot ? Why not Saccard ? ” 

But in his memory there revived a confused story of 
Saccard’s past, which an agent, named Larsonneau, to-day 
a millionaire, had told him : Saccard tumbling into Paris 
on the day after the coup d' État, coming to exploit the 
rising power of his brother Rougon, and in the first place 
his poverty in the dark streets of the old Latin Quarter, 
and then his rapidly acquired fortune, under cover of a 
suspicious marriage, when he had the good luck to bury 
his wifë. It was at the time of these difficult beginnings 
that he had changed his name from Rougon to Saccard, 
simply transforming his first wife’s name, Sicardot. 

“Yes, yes, Sicardot, I remember perfectly,” muttered 
Busch. “ He had the effrontery to sign notes with his 
wife’s name. Undoubtedly the family took that name 
on moving into the Rue de la Harpe. And then the ras- 
cal took all sorts of precautions, having to move at the 
slightest alarm. Ah! he was not only coin-chasing; he 
was also upsetting girls on staircases ! Stupid business ; 
one of these days it will cost him dear.” 

“Hush! hush!” resumed the Méchain. “We have 
him now, and well may one say that there is a good God. 
At last, then, I am to be rewarded for all that I have 
done for this poor little Victor, whom I dearly love all 
the same, in spite of the fact that he is intractable.” 

She was radiant ; her little eyes sparkled in the melting 
flesh of her face. 

But Busch, after the feverish stroke of this long-sought 
solution, now brought him by chance, grew cold again 
upon reflection, and shook his head. Undoubtedly Sac- 
card, although ruined for the moment, was still good to 


36 


MONEY. 


shear. One might fall upon a less advantageous father. 
Only he would not allow himself to be annoyed ; he had 
a terrible tooth. And then, besides, he certainly was un- 
aware that he had a son ; he might deny it, in spite of 
this extraordinary resemblance that so astounded the 
Méchain. For the rest, he was for the second time a 
widower, free, under no obligation to account for his past 
to any one, so that, even if he should acknowledge the 
little one, there was no fear, no threat, that could be 
utilized against him. As for realizing from his paternity 
only the six hundred francs of the notes, that was really 
too paltry ; if that was all, it was not worth while to have 
been so miraculously aided by chance. No, no, he must 
reflect, nurse this, find a way of cutting the crop at har- 
vest-time. 

“ Let us not hurry,” concluded Busch. « Besides, he is 
down ; let us give him time to get up again.” 

And, before dismissing the Méchain, he finished exam- 
ining with her the little matters with which she was 
charged,— a young woman who had pawned her jewels 
for her lover, a son-in-law whose debt would be paid by 
his mother-in-law, his mistress, if they could find a way 
to work it, in short, the most delicate varieties of this 
complex and difficult business of collecting claims. 

Saccard, on entering the adjoining room, had stood for 
a second dazzled by the bright light of the window pour- 
ingin through the sunny panes, unhindered by any curtain. 
This room, whose walls were covered with paper bearing 
a design of blue flowerets on a light background, was 
otherwise almost bare: simply a little iron bedstead in 
th e> corner, a deal table in the middle, and two straw 
chairs. Along the partition at the left some rudely-planed 
planks served as a library, loaded with books, pamphlets 
joui nais, and papers of all sorts. But the broad sunlight 
at these heights, imparted to this nudity a sort of youth- 
ful gayety, a laugh of artless freshness. And Busch’s 
brother,. Sigismond, a beardless fellow of thirty-five, with 
ong, thin, chestnut hair, was sitting at the table, his broad 
swelling forehead buried in his thin hand, so absorbed in 


MONEY. 37 

the reading of a manuscript that he did not turn his head, 
not having heard the door open. 

He was an intelligent fellow, this Sigismond, educated 
in the German universities, who, besides French, his 
mother tongue, spoke German, English, and Russian. In 
1849, at Cologne, he had known Karl Marx, and had be- 
come the favorite editor of the “ New Rhenish Gazette 
and, since then, his religion had been fixed : he professed 
Socialism with an ardent faith, having given his entire 
person to the idea of an approaching social renovation, 
which was to assure the happiness of the poor and humble. 
Since his master, banished from Germany and forced to 
exile himself from Paris after the days of June, had been 
living at London, writing and trying to organize the party, 
he had vegetated on his side, in his dreams, so careless of 
his material life that he surely would have died of 
hunger if his brother had not taken him in the Rue Fey- 
deau, near the Bourse, giving him the idea of utilizing 
his knowledge of languages as a professional translator. 
This elder brother adored the younger, with a maternal 
passion, a ferocious wolf to debtors, very capable of steal- 
ing ten sous’ worth of a man’s blood, but straightway 
moved to tears, and showing a woman’s passionate and 
minute tenderness, immediately it became a question of 
this tall, absent-minded fellow, who had remained a child. 
He had given him the fine room fronting the street, he 
served him as a domestic, and he managed their strange 
housekeeping, sweeping, making the beds, and looking out 
for the food which a little restaurant in the neighborhood 
sent up twice a day. He, so active, his head stuffed with 
a thousand matters of business, tolerated his brother 
in idleness, for the translations made no progress, 
thwarted by personal occupations ; and he even forbade 
him to work, anxious over an ominous little cough ; and, 
in spite of his stern love of money, his murderous greed 
which regarded money-making as the sole motive of life, 
he smiled indulgently upon the theories of the revolution- 
ist, abandoning capital to him like a toy to a child, ready 
to see him break it. 

Sigismond, in his turn, did not even know what his 


38 


MONEY. 


brother did in the next room. He was utterly ignorant 
of this frightful commerce in depreciated values and of 
the purchase of claims ; he lived in a loftier region, in a 
sovereign dream of justice. The idea of charity wounded 
him, and made him angry : charity was alms, inequality 
consecrated by kindness ; and he admitted only justice, 
the rights of each regained, laid down as immutable prin- 
ciples of the new social organization. Accordingly, fol- 
lowing Karl Marx, with whom he was in continual corre- 
spondence, he exhausted his days in studying this organiza- 
tion, incessantly modifying and improving upon paper the 
society of to-morrow, covering immense pages with fig- 
ures, basing upon science the whole complicated scaffold- 
ing of universal happiness. He took capital from some 
to distribute it among all the others, he moved billions, 
displaced the wealth of the world with a stroke of his 
pen ; and that in this bare room, without any other pas- 
sion than his dream, without any need of enjoyment to be 
satisfied, of such frugality that his brother had to get 
angry in order to make him drink wine and eat meat. 
He wished the labor of every man, measured according 
to his strength, to assure the satisfaction of his appetites ; 
but he killed himself with work, and lived upon nothing. 
A real sage, exalted in his study, disengaged from ma- 
terial life, very gentle and very pure. Since the last 
autumn he had coughed more and more ; consumption was 
invading him, but he did not even condescend to notice it 
and guard against it. 

But Saccard having made a movement, Sigismond at 
last raised his large vague eyes and was astonished, al- 
though he knew the visitor. 

“ I come to get a letter translated.” 

The young man’s surprise increased, for he had discour- 
aged his customers, the bankers, speculators, brokers, the 
entire world of the Bourse, who receive, especially from 
England and Germany, voluminous correspondence, cir- 
culars, and corporation by-laws. 

“ Yes, a letter in Russian. Oh ! only ten lines.” 

Then he stretched out his hand, Russian having re- 
mained his specialty, he alone translating it fluently, 


MONEY. 


39 


among all the other translators of the neighborhoood, who 
lived by German and English. The rarity of Russian 
documents in the Paris market explained his long periods 
of idleness. 

He read the letter aloud in French. It was, in three 
phrases, a favorable reply from a Constantinople banker, 
a simple yes as to a matter of business. 

“ Ah ! thank you,” cried Saccard, who seemed delighted. 

And he asked Sigismond to write the few lines of 
translation on the back of the letter. But Sigismond 
was seized with a terrible fit of coughing, which he stifled 
in his handkerchief, not to disturb his brother, who always 
ran in whenever he heard him cough in this way. Then, 
the crisis over, he rose and went to open the window wide, 
stifling, and wishing to breathe the air. Saccard, who 
had followed him, gave a glance outside and uttered a 
slight exclamation. 

« What! you see the Bourse? Oh ! how queer it looks 
from here!” 

Never in fact had he seen it under such a singular 
aspect, in a bird’s-eye view, with the four vast zinc slopes 
of its roof, extraordinarily developed, and bristling with a 
forest of pipes. The points of the lightning-rods stood 
up like gigantic lances threatening the sky. And the 
monument itself was nothing but a cube of stone, regu- 
larly streaked with columns, a cube of dirty, bare, and 
ugly gray, surmounted with a ragged flag. But, above 
all, the steps and the peristyle astonished him, picketed 
with black ants, a complete ant-hill in revolution, in agita- 
tion, raising an enormous commotion, not to be explained 
from so high a point, and which gave one a feeling of 

Pl “How it shrinks ! ” he continued. “ It seems as if one 
could take the whole of them in his hand, with one grip.’ 

Then, knowing the young man’s ideas, he added, with 

a laugh: . . , 5 „ 

“ When do you sweep all that away, with one kick t 

Sigismond shrugged his shoulders. 

“ What is the use ? You are demolishing yourselves. 

And little by little he became animated, overflowing 


40 


MONEV. 


with the subject of which he was full. A necessity of 
proselyting launched him, at the slightest word, into an 
exposition of his system. 

“ Yes, yes, you work for us without suspecting it. You 
are a few usurpers, who expropriate the mass of the 
people, and when you have gorged yourselves, we shall 
have only to expropriate you in our turn. Every mo- 
nopoly, all centralization, leads to collectivism. You are 
setting us a practical example, so that the large estates 
absorbing the small pieces of land, the large producers 
devouring the workmen in small shops, the great houses 
of credit and the great stores killing all competition and 
fattening off the ruin of the little banks and the little 
shops, are a slow but certain preparation for the new social 
state. We are waiting for everything to crack, for the 
existing method of production to end in the intolerable 
disorder of its last consequences. Then the bourgeois and 
the peasants themselves will aid us.” 

Saccard, interested, looked at him with vague anxiety, 
although he took him for a madman. 

“ But then, tell me, what is collectivism?” 

“ Collectivism is the transformation of private capital, 
living by the struggles of competition, into a unitary social 
capital, exploited by the labor of all. Imagine a society 
in which the instruments of production are the property 
of all, in which everybody works according to his intelli- 
gence and strength, and in which the products of this 
social cooperation are distributed to each in proportion to 
his effort. There can be nothing simpler, you see. 
Common production in the factories, yards, and shops of 
the nation ; then an exchange, a payment in kind. If 
there is over-production, the surplus will be put in public 
warehouses, from which it will be taken again to fill any 
deficits that may occur. It is a balance to strike. And 
that, like one blow of an axe, fells the rotten tree. No 
more competition, no more private capital, hence no more 
business of any kind, neither markets nor Bourses. The 
idea of profit thenceforth has no meaning. The sources 
of speculation, of incomes acquired without work, are 
dried up.” 


MONEY. 


41 


“ Oh ! oh ! ” interrupted Saccard, “ that would devilishly 
change the. habits of many people ! But those who have 
incomes to-day, what would you do with them ? Gunder- 
mann, for instance, would you take away his billion ? ” 

“ Not at all ; we are not robbers. We would redeem 
his billion, all his stocks and bonds, with certificates of 
enjoyment, divided into annuities. And just imagine 
this immense capital thus replaced by a suffocating wealth 
of means of consumption : in less than a hundred years 
the descendants of your Gundermann would be reduced, 
like other citizens, to personal labor ; for the annuities 
would finally become exhausted, and they would not have 
been able to capitalize their forced economies, the over- 
plus of this crush of provisions, even admitting that the 
right of inheritance should be left untouched. I tell you 
that that sweeps away at one stroke, not only individual 
enterprises, stock companies, associations of private capi- 
tal, but also all the indirect sources of incomes, all sys- 
tems of credit, loans, house-rents, ground-rents. There is 
nothing left but labor as a measure of value. Wages will 
naturally be suppressed, not being, in the present capital- 
istic system, equivalent to the exact product of labor, since 
they never represent more than is strictly necessary for 
the daily maintenance of the laborer. And it must be 
admitted that the existing system alone is guilty, that the 
most honest employer is clearly forced to follow the stern 
law of competition, to exploit his workmen, if he wishes 
to live. We have to destroy our entire social system. 
Ah, Gundermann stifling under the burden of his certifi- 
cates of enjoyment ! the heirs of Gundermann not suc- 
ceeding in eating everything, obliged to give to others 
and to take up the pick or the tool, like other comrades ! ” 

And Sigismond burst into the good-natured laugh of a 
child at play, still standing by the window, with his eyes 
fixed on the Bourse, where swarmed the ant-hill of specu- 
lation. Glowing tints flushed his cheeks ; he had no other 
amusement than thus to imagine the comical ironies of 
the justice of to-morrow. 

Saccard’s uneasiness had increased. Suppose this wide- 
awake dreamer spoke the truth ? Suppose he had divined 


42 MONEY. 

the future? He explained things that seemed very clear 
and sensible. * 

“ Bah!” he muttered, reassuring himself, “ all that will 
not happen next year.” 

“ Certainly,” rejoined the young man, again becoming 
serious and weary. “ We are in the transition period, the 
period of agitation. Perhaps there will be revolutionary 
violences ; they are often inevitable. But the exaggera- 
tions and outbursts are temporary. Oh ! I do not con- 
ceal the great immediate difficulties. This whole future 
dreamed of seems impossible. One does not succeed in 
giving people a reasonable idea of this future society, 
this society of just labor, whose morals will be so differ- 
ent from ours. It is like another world in another planet. 
And then, it must be confessed, the re-organization is not 
ready ; we are still hunting for it. I, who now go almost 
without sleep, exhaust my nights in the search. 

“ For instance, it is certain that they can say to us : 

‘ If things are as they are, it is because the logic of hu- 
man acts has made them so.’ Hence what a task to lead 
the river back to its source and direct it through another 
valley! Certainly the existing social system owes its cen- 
turies of prosperity to the individualist principle, to which 
emulation and personal interest impart a fertility of pro- 
duction that is continually renewed. Will collectivism 
ever arrive at this fertility, and by what means to stimu- 
late the productive function of the laborer when the idea 
of profit is destroyed? There, to my mind, lies the 
doubt, the anguish, the weak point over which we must 
fight, if we wish the victory of Socialism to be some day 
decided. But we shall conquer, because we are justice. 
Stay! you see that monument in front of you? Do you 
see it? ” 

“ The Bourse ? ” said Saccard. “ Why, yes, of course, 
I see it.” 

“ Well, it would be stupid to blow it up, because it 
would be rebuilt. Only I predict to you that it will go 
up of itself when the State shall have expropriated it, 
thus logically becoming the sole and universal bank of 
the nation ; and, who knows ? perhaps then it will serve 


money. 


43 


as a public warehouse for our excess of wealth, one of the 
store-houses where our grandchildren will find the neces- 
sary luxury for their days of festival.” 

With a broad gesture Sigismond opened this future of 
general and average happiness. And he had become so 
exalted that a new fit of coughing shook him, and sent 
him back to his table, with his elbows among his papers 
and his head in his hands, to stifle the harsh rattle in his 
throat. But this time he did not quiet himself. Sud- 
denly the door opened, and Busch ran in, having dismissed 
the Méchain, with a bewildered air, suffering himself from 
this abominable cough. Directly he leaned over, and 
took his brother in his long arms, as one soothes a child 
in pain. 

“ See, my little one, what is the matter with you, that 
you strangle so? You know I wish you to send for a 
physician. This isn’t reasonable. You surely must have 
talked too much.” 

And he gave a side glance at Saccard, who remained 
in the middle of the room, decidedly upset by what he 
had just heard from the lips of this tall devil, so passion- 
ate and so ill, who from his high window must cast a 
spell over the Bourse with his stories of sweeping every- 
thing away in order to rebuild again. 

“ Thank you, I leave you,” said the visitor, in a hurry 
to be outside. “ Send me my letter, with the ten lines 
of translation. I expect others, and we will settle for 
them all together.” 

But, the crisis being over, Busch retained him a mo- 
ment longer. 

“ By the way, the lady who was here just now used to 
know you : oh ! a long time ago.” 

“ Ah ! where was that ? ” 

“ Rue de la Harpe, in ’52.” 

As complete a master of himself as he was, Saccard 
turned pale. His lips twitched nervously. Not that he 
remembered at that minute the girl overturned upon the 
stairs : he had never even known of her pregnancy, he 
was ignorant of the existence of the child. But to be re- 


44 


MONEY. 


minded of the wretched years of his beginnings was al- 
ways very disagreeable to him. 

“ Rue de la Harpe, oh ! I lived there only a week, at 
the time of my arrival in Paris, just long enough to look 
for rooms. Au revoir ! ” 

“ Au revoir ! ” responded Busch, emphatically, who de- 
ceived himself, thinking that he saw a confession in this 
embarrassment, and who was already wondering in what 
large way he could exploit the adventure. 

Again in the street, Saccard turned back mechanically 
toward the Place de la Bourse. He was trembling, and 
he did not even look at the little Madame Conin, whose 
pretty blonde face was smiling in the doorway of the sta- 
tioner’s shop. In the square the agitation had increased, 
and the clamor of the game was beating against the side- 
walks, swarming with people, with the hurrying violence 
of a high tide. It was the last snap of the jaws at a quar- 
ter before three, the battle of the last quotations, the 
rage to know who would come out with full hands. And, 
standing at the corner of the Rue de la Bourse, oppo- 
site the peristyle, he thought he recognized, in the con- 
fused jostling, under the columns, the bear Moser and 
the bull Pillerault, in a quarrel ; while he imagined that 
he heard, coming from the depths of the main hall, the 
shrill voice of the broker Mazaud, drowned occasionally 
in the shouts of Nathansohn, sitting under the clock, 
in the coulisse. But a carriage driving in the gutter came 
near spattering him with mud. Massias leaped out, even 
before the coachman had stopped, and went up the steps 
at a bound, bringing, out of breath, the last order of a 
customer. 

And he, still motionless and erect, with his eyes fixed 
on the fray above him, ruminated on his life, haunted by 
the memory of his beginnings, which Busch’s question 
had just awakened. He recalled the Rue de la Harpe, 
and then the Rue Saint-Jacques, through which he had 
dragged his worn-out boots of a conquering adventurer, 
landed in Paris to subdue it ; and a fury seized him, at 
the thought that he had not subdued it yet, that he was 
again upon the pavements, watching fortune, unsatisfied, 


MONEY. 


45 


tortured by a hunger for enjoyment equal to any from 
which he had ever suffered. This madman of a Sigis- 
mond was right : labor cannot give one life ; only the 
wretches and the fools labor, to fatten the others. There 
was only gambling, gambling, which, from the afternoon 
till the next day, gives at one stroke comfort, luxury, 
broad life, life entire. Even if this old social world were 
to crumble some day, could not a man like him still find 
time and room to fill the cup of his desires, before the 
undermining? 

But a passer-by elbowed him, without even turning back 
to excuse himself. He recognized Gundermann taking his 
little walk for his health ; he watched him enter a confec- 
tioner’s, whence this king of gold sometimes brought a 
one-franc box of bonbons to his grand-daughters. And 
this elbow-thrust, at that minute, in the fit of fever that 
had been rising in him during his circuit of the Bourse, 
was like the lash, the last shove that determined him. He 
had finished his circumvallation of the place ; now he 
would make the assault. It was the oath of a merciless 
struggle : he would not leave France, he would defy his 
brother, he would play the final game, a stroke of terrible 
audacity, which should either put Paris beneath his heels 
or throw him into the gutter with a broken back. 

Up to the hour of-closing, Saccard stayed there, erect 
at his post of observation and threat. He watched the 
emptying of the peristyle, the covering of the steps with 
the slow scattering of this whole hot and weary crowd. 
Around him the obstruction of the pavements and the 
sidewalks continued, an uninterrupted flow of people, the 
eternal crowd to be exploited, the investors of to-morrow, 
who could not pass by this great lottery of speculation 
without turning their heads, curious and fearful as to 
what might be going on there, this mystery of financial 
operations, all the more attractive to French brains be- 
cause penetrated by so few of them. 


IL 


AFTER his last and disastrous land speculation, when 
Saccard had had to leave his palace in the Parc Monceaux, 
which he abandoned to his creditors in order to avoid a 
greater catastrophe, his first idea was to take refuge with 
his son Maxime. The latter, since the death of his wife, 
who was sleeping in a little cemetery in Lombardie, was 
living alone in a mansion on the Avenue de L’Impéra- 
trice, where he had organized his life with a prudent and 
ferecious egoism ; there he ate the fortune of the deceased, 
without a mistake, like a man in feeble health whom vice 
had prematurely ripened ; and in a clear voice he refused 
to take his father to his house, in order to continue, as he 
explained with his smiling, prudent air, to live in harmony 
together. 

From that time Saccard thought of some other retreat. 
He was going to hire a little house at Passy, a retired 
merchant’s bourgeois asylum, when he recollected that the 
first and second stories of the Hotel d’Orviedo, in the 
Rue Saint-Lazare, were still unoccupied, with doors and 
windows closed. The Princess d’Orviedo, who had lived 
in three rooms on the third floor since her husband’s 
death, had not even put up the sign “ To Let ” at the car- 
riage entrance, where the weeds were growing. A low 
door at the other end of the façade led to the third story 
by a servants’ staircase. And often, when in business 
relations with the Princess, during the visits that he 
paid her, he was astonished at the negligence which she 
showed in the matter of realizing a profit from her estate. 

But she shook her head, she had theories of her own as 
to money matters. However, when he applied to hire it 
in his own name, she consented at once, yielding to him, 
in consideration of a ridiculous rent of ten thousand francs’ 


MONEY. 


47 


the ground floor and the sumptuous second floor, furnished 
in princely fashion, and worth certainly double the money. 

All remembered the magnificence displayed by Prince 
d’Orviedo. It was in the fever of his immense financial 
fortune, when he had come from Spain, landing at Paris 
amid a rain of millions, that he had bought and redeco- 
rated this mansion, while awaiting the palace of marble 
and gold with which he dreamed of astonishing the world. 
The edifice dated from the last century, one of those 
pleasure-houses built in the middle of vast gardens by 
gallant lords ; but, partially demolished and rebuilt in 
severer proportions, it had kept, of its park of former days, 
only a large court bordered with stables and coach-houses, 
which the projected Rue du Cardinal-Fesch would surely 
sweep away. The Prince held it from the inheritance of 
a maiden lady, Mademoiselle Saint-Germain, whose prop- 
erty extended formerly to the Rue des Trois-Frères, the 
old extension of the Rue Taitbout. The mansion, how- 
ever, had kept its entrance on the Rue Saint-Lazare, side 
by side with a large building of the same period, the Folie- 
Beauvilliersof former days, which the Beauvilliers still oc- 
cupied, after a period of slow ruin. And they possessed 
a remnant of admirable garden, with magnificent trees, 
condemned also to disappear in the approaching upheaval 
of the neighborhood. 

In the midst of his disaster Saccard dragged after him 
a long line of servants, the débris of his too numerous 
personnel , a valet de chambre , a head cook and his wife, 
who had charge of the linen, another woman who re- 
mained no one knew why, a coachman, and two hostlers ; 
and he filled up the stables and coach-houses, putting two 
horses and three carriages in them, and established on the 
ground floor a dining-hall for his domestics. This was the 
man who had not five hundred solid francs in his coffers, 
but who was living at the rate of two or three hundred 
thousand francs a year. Accordingly he found a way to 
fill with his own person the vast apartments of the second 
story, the three reception rooms and the five bed-rooms, 
without counting the immense dining-room, in which a 
table could be set for fifty persons. There formerly a 


MONEY. 


48 

door opened upon an inner staircase leading to the third 
story, into another and smaller dining-room ; and the 
Princess, who had recently rented this part of the third 
story to an engineer, M. Hamelin, a bachelor who lived 
with his sister, had contented herself with condemning the 
door by the aid of two stout screws. Thus she shared 
the old staircase of the servants with this tenant, while 
Saccard had the sole privilege of the main stairway. 
He partially furnished a few rooms with the remains of 
the Parc Monceaux establishment, left the others empty, 
and succeeded nevertheless in restoring life to this 
series of bare and gloomy walls, from which an obstin= 
ate hand seemed to have torn even the smallest shreds 
of hangings, on the day after the Prince’s death. And 
he was able to recommence his dream of a grand fortune 0 
The Princess d’Orviedo was then one of the curious 
characters of Paris. Fifteen years before, she had re- 
signed herself to marry the Prince, whom she did not love, 
in obedience to the formal command of her mother, the 
Duchess de Combeville. At that period this young girl 
of twenty was famous for her beauty and propriety, very 
religious, a little too serious, although loving society pas- 
sionately. She was ignorant of the singular stories current 
regarding the Prince, the origins of his royal fortune esti- 
mated at three hundred millions, a whole life of frightful 
robberies, committed, not at the corner of a wood, by 
main force, after the fashion of the noble adventurers of 
former days, but as a correct modern bandit, in the broad 
sunlight of the Bourse, from the pocket of the poor cred- 
ulous world, among the ruins and death. There in Spain, 
here in France, the Prince, for twenty years, had played 
the lion’s part in all the great rascalities that have become 
legendary. Although suspecting nothing of the mud and 
blood in which he had just picked up so many millions, 
she had felt toward him, at their first meeting, a repugnance 
which her religion was to remain powerless to overcome ; 
and soon to this antipathy was added a secret, growing 
spite, felt at having had no child by this marriage, to 
which she had submitted for obedience’ sake. Mother- 
hood would have been sufficient for her, for she adored 


MONEY. 


49 


children ; but she came to hate this man, who, after 
having taken from her all hope of the joys of love, had 
not been able to satisfy even her mother nature. It was 
at this moment that the Princess was seen to hurl herself 
into a life of unheard-of luxury, to blind Paris with the 
brilliancy of her balls, and to do everything on a scale of 
magnificence which, it was said, made the Tuileries jeal- 
ous. Then, suddenly, on the day after the death of the 
Prince from a stroke of apoplexy, the mansion in the Rue 
Saint-Lazare had fallen into absolute silence, complete 
darkness. Not a light, not a sound; the doors and the 
windows remained closed ; and the rumor spread that the 
Princess, after having violently stripped the first and sec- 
ond stories, had withdrawn, like a recluse, into three little 
rooms in the third story, with old Sophie, her mother’s 
former maid, who had brought her up. On such occa- 
sions as she had reappeared, she had worn a simple black 
woollen dress, her hair hidden under a lace fichu, short 
and still plump, with her narrow forehead and her pretty 
round face with its pearly teeth between set lips, but 
having already a yellow complexion and a silent counte- 
nance, sunk in a single will, that of a nun who had been 
long in the cloister. She had just reached thirty, and 
had lived since then only to carry on immense works of 
charity. 

In Paris the surprise was great, and all sorts of extraor- 
dinary stories were in circulation. The Princess had inher- 
ited the entire fortune, the famous three hundred millions, 
with accounts of which the columns of the newspapers 
were filled. And the legend which finally became fixed 
was romantic. A man, a stranger dressed in black, it was 
said, had suddenly appeared one evening in the chamber 
of the Princess, just as she was going to bed, without her 
ever understanding by what secret door he had gained an 
entrance; and what this man had told her no one in the 
world knew ; but he must have revealed to her the abomin- 
able origin of the three hundred millions, perhaps exacting 
from her an oath to repair so many iniquities, if she wished 
to avoid frightful catastrophes. Then the man had disap- 
peared. During the five years that she had been a widow, 


MONEY. 


50 

had she indeed acted in obedience to an order received 
from without, or rather in a simple revolt of honesty 
when the record of her fortune had fallen into her hands. 
The truth was that her life was thenceforth spent in an 
ardent fever of renunciation and reparation. In this 
woman, who had not known love, and had not succeeded 
in becoming a mother, all her reversed emotions, and 
especially her fruitless love of children, expanded into a 
veritable passion for the poor, the weak, the disinherited, 
the suffering, those from whom she believed the stolen 
millions to be withheld, those to whom she swore to re- 
store them royally, in a rain of alms. From that time 
the fixed idea took possession of her, the nail of obsession 
had been driven into her brain ; she considered herself 
henceforth only as a banker, with whom the poor had de- 
posited three hundred millions, in order that they might 
be employed for their benefit in the most advantageous 
way ; she -was nothing but an accountant, a business 
agent, living in figures, in the midst of a population of 
notaries, architects, and workmen. Outside she had es- 
tablished a vast office, with a score of employees. At 
home in her three small rooms she received only four or 
five intermediaries, her lieutenants ; and there she passed 
her days, at a desk, like a director of great enterprises, 
cloistered far away from the unfortunate, among a grow- 
ing heap of papers that threatened to swamp her. It was 
her dream to relieve all miseries, from that of the child 
that suffers from being born to that of the old man who 
cannot die without suffering. During these five years, 
scattering gold by the handful, she had established at 
Villette the Saint Mary's Infant Asylum, with .white 
cradles for the very little ones, and blue beds for the 
larger ones, — an immense and light establishment, already 
occupied by three hundred children ; an orphan asylum 
at Saint-Mandé, the Saint Joseph's Orphan Asylum, where 
a hundred boys and a hundred girls received education 
and instruction such as are given in bourgeois families ; 
finally, an asylum for old people at Châtillon, capable of 
accommodating fifty men and fifty women, and a hospital 
with two hundred beds in a suburb, the Saint Marceau 


MONEY. 


51 

Hospital, whose wards had only just been opened. But 
her favorite work, that which absorbed at this moment 
her whole heart, was the Work of Labor, a creation of 
her own, a house which was to take the place of the 
House of Correction, where three hundred children, one 
hundred and fifty girls and one hundred and fifty boys, 
picked up from the pavements of Paris, in debauchery 
and in crime, were to be regenerated by good care and 
by apprenticeship at a trade. These various establish- 
ments, together with considerable donations and a reckless 
prodigality in charity, had devoured almost a hundred 
millions in five years. At this rate, in a few years more 
she would be ruined, without having reserved even the 
small income necessary to buy the bread and milk upon 
which she now lived. When her old servant, Sophie, 
breaking her accustomed silence, scolded her with a harsh 
word, prophesying that she would die a beggar, she gave 
a feeble smile, now the only one that ever appeared on 
her colorless lips, a divine smile of hope. 

It was precisely at the time of the founding of the Work 
of Labor that Saccard made the acquaintance of the 
Princess d’Orviedo. He was one of the owners of the 
land which she bought for this Work, an old garden 
planted with beautiful trees, next to the Parc de Neuilly, 
and which extended beside the Boulevard Bineau. He 
had attracted her by his brisk way of doing business ; she 
wished to see him again, in consequence of certain diffi- 
culties with her contractors. He himself had become 
interested in the works, his imagination charmed and made 
captive by the grand plan which she imposed upon the 
architect : two monumental wings, one for the boys, the 
other for the girls, connected with each other by a main 
building containing the chapel, the common departments, 
the business-office, and all the various services ; and each 
wing had its immense yard, its work-shops, its out-build- 
ings of all sorts. But what especially filled him with 
enthusiasm, in his own taste for the grand and the gor- 
geou^was the luxury displayed, the enormous edifice made 
of materials to defy the centuries, the marbles lavished, a 
kitchen furnished with utensils equal to the cooking of an 


52 


MONEY. 


ox, gigantic dining-halls with rich oak ceilings, dormitories 
flooded with light and enlivened with bright paintings, a 
linen room, a bath room, an infirmary equipped with an 
excess of refinement ; and everywhere broad entrances, 
stairways, corridors, ventilated in summer and heated in 
winter ; and the entire house bathing in the sunlight, the 
gayety of youth, the complete comfort which only immense 
fortune can procure. When the anxious architect, con- 
sidering all this magnificence useless, spoke of the ex- 
pense, the Princess stopped him with a word : she had 
enjoyed luxury; she wished to give it to the poor, that 
they might enjoy it in their turn, — they who create the 
luxury of the rich. Her fixed idea consisted of this 
dream : to gratify every desire of the wretched, to give 
them beds to sleep in, to seat them at table with the 
fortunate of this world, no longer the alms of a crust of 
bread, or a chance pallet, but life on a large scale within 
the palace where they would be at home, taking their 
revenge, tasting the enjoyments of conquerors. Only, in 
the course of this squandering, amid enormous estimates, 
she was abominably robbed ; a swarm of contractors lived 
upon her, to say nothing of the losses due to inadequate 
superintendence ; they wasted the goods of the poor. 
And it was Saccard who opened her eyes to this, begging 
her to let him straighten out the accounts, absolutely dis- 
interested moreover, solely for the pleasure of regulating 
this mad dance of millions that aroused his enthusiasm. 
Never had he shown himself so scrupulously honest. In 
this colossal and complicated affair, he was the most 
active and most upright of collaborators, giving his time 
and even his money, rewarded simply by the delight which 
he felt at having such large sums pass through his hands. 
They knew scarcely any one but him at the Work of 
Labor, where the Princess never went, any more than she 
visited her other establishments, remaining hidden within 
her three little rooms, like the invisible good goddess ; 
aud he, adored, was blessed, overwhelmed with all the 
gratitude which she did not seem to desire. 

Undoubtedly, during this time, Saccard nursed an in- 
definite project, which suddenly, once he was installed in 


MONEY. 


53 


the Hôtel d’Orviedo as a tenant, assumed the sharp clear- 
ness of a desire. Why should he not consecrate himself 
entirely to the management of the Princess’s good works? 
In the hour of doubt in which he found himself, vanquished 
on the field of speculation, not knowing how to recon- 
struct his fortune, this appeared to him like a new incarna- 
tion, a sudden ascent to apotheosis: to become the dis- 
penser of this royal charity, the channel of this flood of 
gold that was pouring upon Paris. There were two hun- 
dred millions left ; what works still to create, what a city 
of miracle to make spring from the soil ! To say nothing 
of the fact that he would make these millions fruitful, 
would double them and triple them, would know so well 
. how to employ them that from them he would get a 
world. Then, with his passion, everything enlarged ; he 
lived only in this intoxicating thought of spreading them 
in endless alms, of drowning in them happy France; and 
he grew tender, for his probity was perfect ; not a sou 
stuck to his fingers. In his visionary’s brain a giant idyl 
was formed, the idyl of one entirely free from self-con- 
sciousness, mingled with no desire of atoning for his old 
financial brigandage. Especially as, at the end, there lay, 
all the same, the dream of his entire life, the conquest of 
Paris. To be the king of charity, the adored God of the 
multitude of the poor, to become unique and popular, to 
occupy the attention of the world, — that surpassed his 
ambition. What prodigies could he not realize, if he 
should employ in goodness his business-man’s faculties, 
his strategy, his obstinacy, his utter freedom from pre- 
judices! And he would have the irresistible power which 
wins battles, money, money overflowing its coffers, money 
which often does so much harm, and which would do so 
much good as soon as it should be used to satisfy his pride 
and pleasure. 

Then, enlarging his project still further, Saccard went 
so far as to ask himself why he should not marry the 
Princess d’Orviedo. That would settle their positions, 
would prevent evil interpretations. For a month he 
manoeuvred adroitly, disclosed superb plans, thought to 
make himself indispensable ; and one day, in a tranquil 


54 


MONEY. 


voice, having again become ingenuous, he made his 
proposition, developed his great project. It was a veri- 
table association that he offered ; he proposed himself as 
the liquidator of the sums stolen by the Prince ; he 
pledged himself to return them to the poor, ten-fold. 
Moreover, the Princess, in her eternal black dress, with 
her lace fichu on her head, listened to him attentively, no 
emotion whatever animating her sallow face. She was 
very much struck with the advantages that such an asso- 
ciation could offer, indifferent however to the other con- 
siderations. Then, having postponed her answer till the 
next day, she finally refused ; undoubtedly she had per- 
ceived upon reflection that she would no longer be sole 
mistress of her charities, and she meant to dispose of 
them as an absolute sovereign, even madly. But she ex- 
plained that she would be happy to keep him as a coun- 
sellor ; she showed how precious she considered his col- 
laboration by begging him to continue to attend to the 
Work of Labor, of which he was the real director. 

For a whole week Saccard felt a violent chagrin, as well 
as the loss of a dear idea ; not that he felt himself fall- 
ing back into the gulf of brigandage ; but, just as a sen- 
timental romance brings tears to the eyes of the most 
abject drunkards, this colossal idyl of good accomplished 
by strokes of millions had moved his corsair’s old soul. 
Once more he fell, and from a very high point: it seemed 
to him that he was dethroned. Through money hç had 
always wished, at the same time with the satisfaction of 
his appetites, the magnificence of a princely life; and 
never had he sufficiently achieved it. He became furi- 
ous, as one by one his falls carried away his hopes. Con- 
sequently, when his project crumbled before the tranquil 
and square refusal of the Princess, he found himself 
thrown back into a furious desire for battle. To fight, to 
be the strongest in the stern war of speculation, to eat 
others in order to keep them from eating him, was, after 
his thirst for splendor and enjoyment, the great cause, 
the sole cause of his passion for business. Though he did 
not hoard, he had the other joy, the struggle of big fig- 
ures, fortunes launched like army corps, the shocks of 


MONEY. 


SS 

Opposing millions, with the defeats and victories that in- 
toxicated him. And straightway arose again his hatred 
of Gundermann, his ungovernable need of revenge : to 
conquer Gundermann was the chimerical desire that 
haunted him, whenever he found himself prostrate, van- 
quished. Though he felt the childishness of such an at- 
tempt, could he not at least cut into him, make a place 
for himself opposite him, force him to share, like those 
monarchs of neighboring countries and equal powers, who 
treat each other as cousins? Then it was that the Bourse 
again attracted him, his head filled with business projects 
to be launched, besieged in every direction by opposing 
plans, in such a fever that he knew not what to decide, 
until the day when a supreme and immoderate idea dis- 
engaged itself from the others and gradually gained entire 
possession of him. 

Since he had lived in the Hôtel d’Orviedo, Saccard had 
sometimes seen the sister of the engineer Hamelin, who 
lived in the little suite of rooms on the third floor, a 
woman with an admirable figure, Madame Caroline, as 
she was familiarly called. What had especially struck 
him, at the first meeting, was her superb white hair, a 
royal crown of white hair, which gave a most singular 
effect to the forehead of this woman, who was still young, 
scarcely thirty-six years old. At the age of twenty-five 
her hair had turned completely white. Her eyebrows, 
which had remained black and very thick, gave an expres- 
sion of youth, a singular vivacity, to her countenance 
framed in ermine. She had never been pretty, with her 
too pronounced nose and chin, and her large mouth, 
whose thick lips were expressive of exquisite goodness. 
But certainly this white fleece, this floating whiteness of 
white silken hair, softened her rather stern physiognomy, 
and gave her a grandmother’s smiling charm amid the 
freshness and force of a beautiful and passionate young 
woman. She was tall and firmly built, with a free and 
very noble carriage. 

Every time he met her, Saccard, shorter than she was, 
followed her with his eyes, in an interested way, secretly 
envying her tall figure, her healthy breadth of shoulders. 


56 


MONEY. 


And gradually, through their acquaintances, he became 
familiar with the whole history of the Hamelins. They 
were, Caroline and Georges, the children of a Montpellier 
physician, a remarkable savant , an enthusiastic Catholic, 
who died poor. At the time of their father’s death the 
girl was eighteen and the boy nineteen ; and, as the boy 
had just entered the Polytechnic School, his sister followed 
him to Paris, where she secured a place as governess. It 
was she who slipped the five-franc pieces into his hand 
and who kept him in pocket-money during his two years’ 
course ; later, when, having graduated from the Poly- 
technic with a low rank, he had to tramp the pavements, it 
was still she who supported him until he found a situation. 
These two children adored each other, and it was their 
dream never to separate. Nevertheless, an unhoped-for 
marriage having offered itself, the good grace and keen 
intelligence of the young girl having conquered a million- 
aire brewer, in the house where she was employed, Georges 
wished her to accept ; a thing of which he cruelly repented, 
for, after a few years of married life, Caroline was obliged 
to demand a separation in order to avoid being killed by 
her husband, who drank and pursued her with a knife, in 
fits of imbecile jealousy. She was then twenty-six years 
old ; again she found herself poor, obstinately refusing to 
claim any alimony from the man whom she left. But her 
brother had at last, after many attempts, put his hand 
upon a work that pleased him : he was going to start for 
Egypt, with the Commission charged with the early 
studies of the Suez Canal ; and he took his sister with 
him. She bravely established herself at Alexandria, and 
again began giving lessons, while he travelled about the 
country. Thus they remained in Egypt until 1859; they 
saw the first blows of the pick struck upon the beach at 
Port-Said ; a meagre gang of scarcely a hundred and fifty, 
navvies, lost amid the sands, commanded by a handful of 
engineers. Then Hamelin, having been sent into Syria 
to secure provisions, remained there, in consequence of a 
quarrel with his chiefs. He had Caroline come to Bey- 
rout, where other pupils awaited her ; he launched out 
into a big business enterprise, under the patronage of a 


MONEY. 


57 


French company, a plan for a carriage-road from Beyrout 
to Damascus, the first, the only route opened through the 
passes of the Libanos range ; and they lived there three 
years longer, until the finishing of the road, he visiting 
the mountains, absenting himself for two months for a 
journey to Constantinople, through the Taurus, she fol- 
lowing him as soon as she could escape, espousing the 
projects of reawakening which he formed, in tramping up 
and down this old land, asleep beneath the ashes of dead 
civilizations. He had amassed a whole portfolio full of 
ideas and plans, and he felt the imperative necessity of 
returning to France, if he wanted to give body to this 
vast aggregation of enterprises, form companies, and find 
the necessary capital. And after nine years’ residence in 
the Orient they started, having the curiosity to return by 
the way of Egypt, where the works of the Suez Canal 
filled them with enthusiasm : a city had grown up in four 
years on the sands of the beach at Port-Said ; an entire 
people was in motion there ; the human ants had multi- 
plied, changing the face of the earth. But at Paris black 
ill-luck awaited Hamelin. For fifteen months he struggled 
with his projects, unable to communicate his faith to any 
one, too modest, little inclined to babble, stranded on this 
third floor of the Hôtel d’Orviedo, in a little suite of five 
rooms which he rented for twelve hundred francs, farther 
from success than when roaming over' the mountains and 
plains of Asia. Their savings rapidly disappearing, the 
brother and sister reached a point of great embarrassment. 

In fact, it was this that interested Saccard, the growing 
sadness of Madame Caroline, whose fine gayety was dark- 
ened by the discouragement into which she saw her 
brother falling. In their household she was to some ex- 
tent the man. Georges, who greatly resembled her phys- 
ically, though more frail, had rare powers of labor ; but 
he became absorbed in his studies, and did not like to be 
roused from them. Never had he wanted to marry, not 
feeling the need, his adoration of his sister being sufficient 
for him. He must have had mistresses of a day, of which 
no one knew. And this former “ dig” of the Polytechnic 
School, with conceptions so vast, and a zeal so ardent in 


MONEY. 


5B 

everything that he undertook, showed at some times such 
simplicity that one would have deemed him a little stu- 
pid. Brought up in the narrowest Catholicism, he had 
kept the religion of his childhood, and practised it like a 
thorough believer ; whereas his sister had corrected her- 
self by an immense reading, by the vast instruction which 
she gave herself during the long hours in which he was 
plunged in his technical tasks. She spoke four languages ; 
she had read the economists and the philosophers, and 
had been moved to enthusiasm for a time by the social- 
istic and evolutionary theories ; but she had quieted down; 
owing especially to her travels and her long residence 
among far-off civilizations a large toleration, a beautiful 
equilibrium of wisdom. Though she no longer believed, 
she remained very respectful of her brother’s faith. There 
had been ah explanation between them, and never had 
they referred to the matter again. She was an intelli- 
gence, in her simplicity and her good nature; and, facing 
life with extraordinary courage and resisting the cruelties 
of fate with joyous bravery, she was in the habit of say- 
ing that a single sorrow had remained bleeding within 
her, — that of never having had a child. 

Saccard was able to render Hamelin a service, a little 
task which he secured for him from investors who needed 
an engineer for a report upon the power of a new ma- 
chine ; and thus he forced an intimacy with the brother 
and the sister, and frequently went up to spend an hour 
with them, in their parlor, their only large room, which 
they had transformed into a work-room. This room re- 
mained absolutely bare, furnished only with a long design- 
ing-table, another smaller table covered with papers, and 
a half-dozen chairs. On the mantel-shelf books were 
heaped up. But on the walls an improvised decoration 
enlivened this emptiness : a series of plans, a sequence of 
bright water-colors, each sheet fastened with four tacks. 
It was his portfolio of projects that Hamelin had thus 
'spread out, his notes taken in Syria, his entire future for- 
tune ; and the water-colors were the work of Madame 
Caroline, Oriental views, types and costumes which she 
had noticed and sketched, while accompanying her 


MONEY. 


59 


brother, showing her extraordinary originality as a color- 
ist, but without any pretension whatsoever. Two large 
windows, opening upon the garden of the Hôtel Beauvil- 
liers, illuminated with a bright light this confusion of de- 
signs, which evoked another life, the dream of an ancient 
society falling into dust, which the plans, with their stiff 
and mathematical lines, seemed to wish to put upon its 
feet again, supported, as it were, by the solid scaffolding 
of modern science. And when he had rendered himself 
useful, with that expenditure of activity which made him 
charming, Saccard forgot himself especially before the 
plans and water-colors, seduced, continually asking for new 
explanations. In his head a vast launching was already 
germinating. 

One morning he found Madame Caroline alone, sitting 
at the little table which she used for her desk. She was 
dreadfully sad, her hands abandoned among her papers. 

“ What can you expect ? Things are turning decidedly 
badly. Nevertheless I am brave. But everything is 
about to fail us at once ; and what distresses me is the 
powerlessness to which misfortune reduces my poor 
brother, for he is not valiant, he has no power except for 
work. I thought of getting another place as governess, 
that I might at least help him. But I have looked, and 
found nothing. Yet I cannot go out working by the 
day.” 

Never had Saccard seen her so baffled and dejected. 

“ The devil ! you have not reached that point ! ” he 
cried. 

She shook her head, showing herself in her turn with- 
out courage, bitter against the life which she usually ac- 
cepted so jovially ; her thoughts were even wicked. And 
Hamelin just then coming in to bring the news of a last 
disappointment, big tears ran slowly down her cheeks ; 
she spoke no more, her hands clenched on her table, her 
eyes wandering in front of her. 

“ And to think,” Hamelin let escape him, “that in the 
East there are millions awaiting us, if someone would 
only help me to make them ! ” 

Saccard had stationed himself in front of a plan repre- 


6c 


MONEY. 


senting the elevation of a pavilion erected in the centre 
of vast storehouses. 

“ What is that ? ” he asked. 

“ Oh ! something I did for my amusement/ 5 explained 
the engineer. “ It is the plan of a dwellings at Beyrout, 
for the director of the Company of which 1 have dreamed, 
you know, the General Company of United SteamerSc 

He became animated, and went into new details. 
During his stay in the Orient he had noticed how defec- 
tive were the facilities for transportation. The various 
companies, located at Marseilles, killing each other by 
competition, were unable to provide .sufficient and com- 
fortable vessels ; and one of his first ideas, at the very 
basis of the aggregate of his enterprises, was to syndicate 
these associations, to unite them in one vast Company, 
provided with millions, which should exploit the en- 
tire Mediterranean, and assure itself of the sovereign con- 
trol thereof, by establishing lines to all the ports of Africa, 
Spain, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Asia, and even the remotest 
points on the Black Sea. It was a scheme worthy at once 
of the shrewdest of organizers or the best of citizens : it 
was the Orient conquered, given to France, to say nothing 
of the intimate relations which it would establish with 
Syria, where the vast field of his operations was to be 
opened. 

“ Syndicates,” murmured Saccard, “ to-day the future 
seems to lie in that direction. It is such a powerful form 
of association ! Three or four little enterprises, which 
vegetate in isolation, acquire an irresistible vitality and 
prosperity as soon as they unite. Yes, to-morrow belongs 
to the great capitals, to the centralized efforts of immense 
masses. All industry and commerce will end in a single 
immense bazaar, wh'ere one will provide himself with 
everything.” 

He had stopped again, standing this time before a 
water-color which represented a wild locality, an arid 
gorge, stopped up by a gigantic pile of fallen rocks, 
crowned with brambles. 

“ Oh ! oh ! ” he continued, “ this is the end of the world 


MONEY. 


6 1 


One would be in no danger of being iostled by passers-by 
in that corner.” 

“ A Carmel gorge,” answered Hamelin. “ My sister 
painted it while I was making my studies in that neigh- 
borhood.” 

And he added simply: 

“ See ! between the cretaceous limestones and the 
porphyries which have raised up these limestones over 
the entire side of the mountain there is a considerable 
vein of sulphurated silver, yes, a silver mine, the exploita- 
tion of which, according to my calculations, would yield 
enormous profits.” 

“ A silver mine ? ” repeated Saccard, eagerly. 

Madame Caroline, with her eyes still wandering in the 
distance, in her sadness, had heard ; and, as if a vision 
had been evoked, ^e said : 

“ Carmel, ah ! what a desert, what days of solitude ! It 
is full of fragrant myrtles and broom, making the warm 
air balmy. And there are eagles continually circling 
very high in the air. But all this silver that sleeps in this 
sepulchre, by the side of so much misery, where one would 
like to see happy multitudes, work-shops, growing cities, 
a people regenerated by labor.” 

“ A road could easily be opened from Carmel to Saint' 
Jean-d’Acre,” continued Hamelin. “And I firmly be- 
lieve that iron too would be found there, for it abounds 
in all the mountains of the neighborhood. I have also 
studied a new method of extraction, by which large sav- 
ings could be made. All is ready ; it is only amatter of 
finding the capital.” 

“ The Carmel Silver Mining Company ! ” murmured 
Saccard. 

But it was now the engineer who, with raised eyes, 
went from one plan to another, again taken up by this 
labor of his whole life, filled with fever at the thought of 
the brilliant future which was sleeping there, while want 
was paralyzing him. 

“ And these are only the small affairs of the beginning,” 
he continued. “ Look at this series of plans ; here is the 
grand stroke, a complete system of railways traversing 


62 


MONEY. 


Asia Minor from side to side. The lack of convenient 
and rapid communication, such is the primary cause of 
the stagnation in which this rich country is sunk. You 
would not find there a single carriage-road, travel and 
transportation being effected invariably on the backs of 
mules or camels. Imagine, then, the revolution, if iron 
ways could penetrate to the confines of the desert ! In- 
dustry and commerce would be increased ten-fold, civili- 
zation would be victorious, Europe at last opening the 
gates of the Orient. Oh ! if it interests you, we will talk 
of it in detail. And you shall see, you shall see ! ” 

And he could not refrain from straightway entering 
into explanations. It was especially during his journey 
to Constantinople that he had studied the plan of his sys- 
tem of railways. The great, the only difficulty was pre- 
sented by the Taurus mountains; but he had been 
through the different passes, and affirmed the possibility 
of a direct and comparatively inexpensive line. How- 
ever, it was not his intention to execute the complete 
system at one stroke. First obtaining the total grant 
from the Sultan, it would be prudent to undertake at the 
start only the mother line, from Broussa to Beyrout by 
way of Angora and Aleppo. Later they might consider 
the branch lines from Smyrna to Angora, and from Trebi- 
zond to Angora by way of Erzrum and Sivas. 

“ Later, and still later,” he continued . . . 

And he did not finish, contenting himself with a smile, 
not daring to tell how far he had pushed the audacity of 
his projects. That was the dream. 

Ah ! the plains at the foot of Taurus,” said Madame 
Caroline, with her slow voice of an awakened sleeper, 
“ what a delightful paradise ! One has only to tickle the 
earth, and harvests spring up in abundance. The fruit 
trees, the peach trees, the cherry trees, the fig trees, the 
almond trees, break under the weight of their fruit. And 
what fields of olive trees and mulberry treës, like thick 
forests ! And what a natural and easy existence, in this 
light air, so steadily blue ! ” 

Saccard began to laugh, with that shrill laugh indica- 
tive of a fine appetite, which was his when he scented 


MONEY. 


63 

fortune. And, as Hamelin talked of still other projects, 
notably of the establishment of a bank at Constantino- 
ple, while saying a word of the all-powerful relations 
which he had left behind him, especially with the inti- 
mates of the grand vizier, he interrupted him gayly. 

“ Why ! it is a land flowing with milk and honey, which 
one could sell ! ” 

Then, very familiarly, resting both his hands on Ma- 
dame Caroline’s shoulders, she still sitting, he added : 

“ Do not despair, then, Madame. I love you well ; I 
will do with your brother something very good for all of 
us, you shall see. Have patience, wait.” 

During the month that followed Saccard again procured 
some little jobs for the engineer; and, though he talked 
no further of the grand enterprises, he must have steadily 
thought of them, hesitating in view of their crushing 
magnitude. But what added firmness to the growing 
bond of their intimacy was the wholly natural fashion in 
which Madame Caroline came to occupy herself with his 
bachelor’s household, a bachelor devoured by useless ex- 
penses, and the worse served the more servants he had. 
He, so shrewd in the outside world, famous for the vigor 
and cunning of his hand when any huge robbery was to 
be executed, let everything go helter-skelter in his house, 
careless of the frightful waste that tripled his expenses ; 
and the absence of a woman was consequently cruelly 
felt, even in the smallest things. When Madame Caro- 
line perceived the confusion, she gave advice at first, and 
then intervened herself, with the result of realizing two 
or three savirtgs for him ; so that one day he laughingly 
offered her a position as his stewardess: why not? She 
had looked for a place as governess ; she might well ac- 
cept a situation honorable to her, which would permit 
her to wait. The offer, made jestingly, became serious. 
Was not this a way of busying herself, of relieving her 
brother, with the three hundred francs a month that 
Saccard was willing to give ? And she accepted ; she 
reformed the house in a week, discharging the head cook 
and his wife, and replacing them with a female cook, who, 
with the valet de chambre and the coachman, constituted 


64 


MONEY. 


the entire service. Furthermore she kept but one horse 
and one carriage, assumed authority over everything, and 
examined the accounts with such scrupulous care that at 
the end of the first fortnight she had reduced expenses 
one-half. He was delighted ; he jokingly told her that 
it was he now who was robbing her, and that she ought 
to have exacted a percentage on all the profits that she 
realized for him. 

Then a very strict life had begun. Saccard had just 
had the idea of removing the screws that condemned the 
door of communication between the two suites, and they 
went up and down freely, from one dining-room to the 
other, by the inner staircase ; so that, while her brother 
was at work above, shut up from morning till night in the 
work of putting his Oriental designs in order, Madame 
Caroline, leaving her own household to the care of the 
only domestic who served them, descended at every hour 
of the day to give her orders, as if she were at home. It 
had become Saccard’s joy, the continual appearance of 
this tall and beautiful woman, crossing the rooms with 
her firm and superb step, with the always unexpected 
gayety of her white hair, flying about her young face. 
Again she was very gay ; she had recovered her courage 
of life, now that she felt herself useful once more, her 
hours occupied, continually on the move. Without affecta- 
tion of simplicity, she now wore always a black dress, in 
the pocket of which the jingling of the bunch of keys was 
to be heard ; and it certainly amused her, she the woman 
of learning, the philosopher, to be nothing but a good 
housewife, housekeeper to a prodigal, whom she was be- 
ginning to love, as one loves naughty children. He, 
greatly attracted for a time, calculating that after all there 
was a difference of only fourteen years between them, had 
asked himself what would happen if some fine evening 
he should take her in his arms. Could it be that for ten 
years, since her forced flight from the house of her hus- 
band, from whom she had received as many blows as 
caresses, she had lived as a travelling Amazon, without 
seeing a man ? Perhaps her journeys had protected her. 
Yet he knew that a friend of her brother, a Monsieur 


MONEY. 


65 


Beaudoin, a merchant whom they had left at Beyrout and 
whose return was approaching, had loved her much, even 
to the point of waiting, in order to marry her, for the 
death of her husband, who had just been confined in an 
, asylum, crazy with alcoholism. Evidently this marriage 
would simply have legalized a very excusable, almost 
legitimate situation. Then, since there must have been 
one, why should there not have been the second ? But 
Saccard went no further than to reason, finding her such 
a good companion that the woman often disappeared. 
When, on seeing her pass, with her admirable figure, he 
asked himself his question, — namely, what would happen 
if he should kiss her, — he answered that very ordinary 
and perhaps tedious things would happen ; and he post- 
poned the experience until later, contenting himself with 
shaking hands with her vigorously, happy to find her so 
cordial. 

Then, suddenly, Madame Caroline fell back into deep 
sorrow. One morning she came down dejected, very pale, 
with heavy eyes ; and he could learn nothing from her* in 
fact, he ceased to question her, when he saw how obsti- 
nately she declared that there was no trouble, that she was 
just as usual. Not until the next day did he understand, 
when he found upstairs some wedding cards, announcing 
the marriage of M. Beaudoin to the daughter of an Eng- 
lish consul, very young and immensely rich. The blow 
must have been the harder because of the arrival of the 
news in this commonplace way, without any preparation, 
without even a farewell. It was a complete collapse in 
the unfortunate woman’s existence, the loss of the far-off 
hope to which she clung in hours of disaster. And, chance 
too having abominable cruelties, she had only just learned, 
two days before, that her husband was dead ; for forty- 
eight hours she had been able to believe in the approach- 
ing realization of her dream. Her life fell into ruin, leav- 
ing her as if annihilated. The same evening another 
astonishment awaited her : as, in accordance with her 
habit, before going up to bed, she entered Saccard’s room 
to talk of the orders for the next day, he spoke to her of 
her misfortune, so gently that she burst out sobbing ; 


66 


MONEY. 


then, in this unconquerable emotion, in a sort of paralysis 
of her will, she found herself in his arms, she belonged to 
him, without enjoyment on either side. When she re- 
covered herself, she had no feeling of revolt, but her sad- 
ness had increased indefinitely. Why had she suffered 
this thing to be done ? She did not love this man, and it 
could not be that he loved her. Not that he seemed to 
her, by his age or his personal appearance, unworthy of 
love ; without beauty certainly and already old, he inter- 
ested her by the mobility of his features and the activity 
of all his little dark person ; and, not knowing him yet, 
she wanted to think him obliging, of superior intelligence, 
capable of realizing her brother’s great enterprises, with 
the average honesty characteristic of the world generally. 
Only, what an imbecile fall ! She so prudent, so taught 
by stern experience, so thoroughly mistress of herself, to 
have thus succumbed, without knowing why or how, in a 
crisis of tears, like a sentimental grisette! The worst of 
it was that she felt him to be as much astonished as her- 
self, almost displeased with the adventure. When, trying 
to console her, he had spoken to her of M. Beaudoin as 
of an old lover whose base treason deserved only to be 
forgotten, and when she had protested, swearing that 
never had she been his mistress, he had at first thought 
that she was lying, through her woman’s pride ; but she 
had repeated this oath with so much force and showed 
such fine eyes, so clear with frankness, that he had finally 
become convinced of the truth of this story : she through 
uprightness and dignity keeping herself for the wedding- 
day, he waiting patiently for two years, then growing tired 
and marrying another on the appearance of a too tempt- 
ing opportunity of youth and wealth. And the singular 
thing was that this discovery, this conviction, which ought 
to have increased Saccard’s passion, filled him on the con- 
trary with a sort of embarrassment, so thoroughly did he 
understand the stupidly inevitable way in which his good 
fortune had come to him. For the rest, they did not 
begin again, neither of them seeming to desire it. 

For a fortnight Madame Caroline remained thus in 
frightful sadness. The strength to live, that impulse which 


MONEY. 


6 ; 

makes life a necessity and a joy, had abandoned her. She 
attended to her manifold occupations, but in an absent- 
minded way, entertaining no illusion as to the reason and 
interest of things. It was the human machine toiling in 
despair over the annihilation of everything. And, amid 
this shipwreck of her bravery and gayety, she tasted only 
one distraction, that ol passing all her free hours with 
her brow pressed against the window-panes of the large 
work-room and her gaze fixed upon the garden of the 
neighboring mansion, that Hôtel Beauvilliers in which, 
from the first days of her residence in the neighborhood, 
she had divined an anguish, one of those hidden miseries 
so' distressing in their effort to save appearances. There, 
too, were beings who suffered, and her sorrow was, so to 
speak, steeped in these tears ; the melancholy of her 
agony was such as to make her believe herself insensible 
and dead in the sorrow of others. 

These Beauvilliers, who formerly, to say nothing of 
their immense estates in Touraine and Anjou, possessed 
a magnificent mansion in the Rue de Grenelle, had now 
in Paris only this old pleasure-house, built outside the city 
at the beginning of the last century, and which now found 
itself enclosed among the gloomy buildings of the Rue 
Saint-Lazare. The few beautiful trees of the garden re- 
mained there as at the bottom of a pit, and the cracked 
and crumbling steps at the front were covered with moss. 
It seemed like a corner of nature put in prison, a gentle 
and dead corner, of dumb despair, upon which the sun 
shed only a greenish light, whose shiver sent a chill through 
one’s shoulders. And, in this damp, cellar-like place, at 
the top of this loosening flight of steps, the first person 
whom Madame Caroline had noticed was the Countess de 
Beauvilliers, a tall, thin woman of sixty, with perfectly 
white hair and a very noble air, a little superannuated. 
With her long straight nose, her thin lips, and her par- 
ticularly long neck, she looked like a very old swan, a 
picture of mildness mingled with distress. Then, behind 
her, had followed, almost immediately, her daughter, Alice 
de Beauvilliers, twenty-five years old, but so thin that one 
would have taken her for a little girl but for the spoiled 


68 


MONEY. 


complexion and the already drawn features of her face. 
She was her mother over again, more puny, with less of 
the aristocratie nobility, her neck elongated to the point 
of ugliness, having nothing left but the pitiful charm of 
the end of a great race. The two women had lived alçne 
since the son, Ferdinand de Beauvilliers, had enlisted in 
the Pontifical Zouaves, after the battle of Castelfidardo, 
lost by Lamoricière. Every day, when it did not rain, 
they thus appeared, one behind the other, descended the 
steps, and made the circuit of the little central grass-plot, 
without exchanging a word. It had only borders of ivy ; 
flowers would not have grown there, or perhaps they 
would have cost too dear. And this slow promenade, 
undoubtedly a simple walk for the health, by these two 
pale women, under these centenarian trees which had 
seen so many festivities and which the neighboring bour- 
geois houses stifled, took on an air of melancholy grief, as 
if they were exhibiting their mourning for old dead things. 

Then Madame Caroline, interested, had watched her 
neighbors out of tender sympathy, without evil curiosity ; 
and gradually, from her view of the garden, she penetrated 
their life, which they hid with jealous care from the street. 
There was always a horse in the stable and a carriage in 
the carriage-house, in the care of an old domestic, who 
was at once valet de chambre , coachman, and porter; just 
as there was a cook, who served also as a chamber-maid ; 
but, if the carriage went out at the main gate, with the 
horse properly harnessed, to take these ladies on their 
shopping expeditions, and if the table maintained a certain 
luxury, in winter, at the fortnightly dinners to which a 
few friends came, by what long fasts, by what sordid 
economies practised hourly, was purchased this false ap- 
pearance of fortune! In a little shed, sheltered from all 
eyes, there were continual washings, to reduce the laundry 
bill, of poor garments worn out by soap and mended 
thread by thread ; four vegetables were picked for the 
evening meal, with bread that they allowed to settle on a 
board, in order that less of it might be eaten ; there were 
ail sorts of avaricious, mean, and touching practices, the 
old coachman sewing up the holes in Mademoiselle’s 


MONEY. 


69 

boots, the cook blackening with ink the tips of Madame’s 
faded gloves, and the mother’s dresses passed over to the 
daughter after ingenious transformations, and the hats 
which lasted for years, thanks to changes of flowers and 
ribbons. When they were expecting no one, the reception 
rooms on the ground floor were kept carefully closed, as 
well as the large chambers of the second story ; for, of all 
this vast habitation, the two women now occupied but 
one small room, which they used as their dining-room and 
their boudoir. When the window was partly opened, one 
could see the Countess mending her linen, like a needy 
little bourgeoise ; while the young girl, between her piano 
and her box of water-colors, knit stockings and mittens 
for her mother. One very stormy day both were seen to 
go down into the garden and gather up the sand brought 
in by the violence of the rain. 

Now Madame Caroline knew their history. The Coun- 
tess de Beauvilliers had suffered much from her husband, 
who was a rake, and of whom she had never complained. 
One evening they had brought him home, at Vendôme, 
with the death-rattle in his throat and a bullet-hole through 
his body. There was talk of a hunting accident, — some 
shot fired by a jealous game-keeper whose wife or daugh- 
ter he had probably taken. And the worst of it was that 
with him was annihilated that fortune of the Beauvilliers, 
formerly colossal, consisting of immense tracts of land, 
royal domains, which the Revolution had already found 
diminished, and which his father and he had just finished. 
Of this vast landed property, a single farm remained, the 
Aublets, a few leagues from Vendôme, yielding a rent of 
about fifteen thousand francs, the sole resource of the 
widow and her two children. The mansion in the Rue de 
Grenelle had long since been sold ; that in the Rue Saint- 
Lazare ate up the larger part of the fifteen thousand 
francs’ farm rent, crushed with mortgages and threatened 
with sale in its turn if they did not pay the interest ; and 
there was left scarcely six or seven thousand francs for 
the support of four persons, this remnant of a noble family 
unwilling to abdicate. It was now eight years since the 
Countess, on becoming a widow with a son of twenty and 


70 


MONEY. 


a daughter of seventeen, amid the crumbling of her house, 
had stiffened up in the pride of her nobility, swearing that 
she would live on bread and water sooner than fall. From 
that time she had had but one thought, — to hold her rank, 
to marry her daughter to a man of equal nobility, and to 
make a soldier of her son. At first Ferdinand had caused 
her mortal anxieties in consequence of some youthful 
follies, debts that had to be paid ; but, warned of their 
situation in a solemn interview, he had not repeated the 
offence, having a tender heart at bottom, being simply 
idle and without force, kept from all employment, with- 
out possible place for him in contemporary society. 
Now, a soldier of the Pope, he was still a cause of secret 
anguish to her, for he lacked health, delicate under his 
proud exterior, with blood exhausted and poor, which 
rendered the Roman climate dangerous for him. As for 
Alice’s marriage, it was so slow in coming that the sad 
mother’s eyes filled with tears when she looked at her, 
already growing old, withering in waiting. With her air 
.of melancholy insignificance, she was not stupid ;*she had 
ardent aspirations for life, for a man who would love her, 
for happiness ; but, not wishing to plunge the house into 
deeper grief, she pretended to have renounced everything, 
making a jest of marriage, saying that it was her vocation 
to be an old maid ; and at night she wept in her pillow, 
and thought she would die from the sorrow of being alone. 
The Countess, however, by her miracles of avarice, had 
succeeded in laying aside twenty thousand francs, Alice’s 
entire dowry ; she had likewise saved from the wreck a few 
jewels, a bracelet, some finger-rings and ear-rings, possibly 
worth ten thousand francs ; a very meagre dowry, a wed- 
ding present of which she did not dare to speak, scarcely 
enough to meet the needed expenses if the awaited hus- 
band should appear. And yet she would not despair, 
struggling in spite of everything, unwilling to abandon 
one of the privileges of her birth, as high as ever and with 
corresponding fortune, incapable of going out on foot or 
of cutting off a single side-dish from an evening reception, 
but curtailing in her hidden life, condemning herself for 
weeks to potatoes without butter, to add fifty francs to 


MONEY. 


;î 

her daughter’s eternally insufficient dowry. It was a 
painful and puerile daily heroism, while every day the 
house was crumbling a little more about their heads. 

Yet so far Madame Caroline had not had an oppor- 
tunity of speaking to the Countess and her daughter. 
She finally came to know the most private details of their 
life, those which they thought to hide from the entire 
world, and there had been between them as yet only ex- 
changes of glances, those glances that turn into a sudden 
sensation of sympathy, behind one. The Princess d’Or- 
viedo was to bring them together. She had the idea 
of creating for her Work of Labor a sort of committee of 
superintendence, composed of ten ladies, which met twice 
a month, visited the Work in detail, and saw that all the 
services were properly performed. Having reserved the 
choice of these ladies for herself, she had designated 
among the first Madame de Beauvilliers, one of her great 
friends of former days, but who had become simply her 
neighbor now that she had retired from the world. And 
it had come about that the committee of superintendence 
having lost its secretary, Saccard, who kept his authority 
over the business management of the establishment, had 
recommended Madame Caroline as a model secretary, 
such a one as could not be found elsewhere : in fact, the 
task was a rather arduous one ; there were many accounts, 
and even material cares, that were somewhat repugnant 
to these ladies ; and from the start Madame Caroline had 
shown herself an admirable hospital sister, in whom her 
unsatisfied maternity, her hopeless love of children, kindled 
an active tenderness for all these poor creatures whom 
they were trying to save from the Parisian gutter. Then, 
at the last meeting of the committee, she had met the 
Countess de Beauvilliers ; but the latter had given her 
only a rather cold salute, concealing her secret embarrass- 
ment, undoubtedly feeling that in her she had a witness 
of her poverty. Now both bowed whenever their eyes 
met, as it would have been too gross impoliteness to pre- 
tend not to recognize each other. 

One day, in the large work-room, while Hamelin was 
correcting a plan according to new calculations, and Sac- 


72 


MONEY. 


card, standing by, was watching his work, Madame Caro- 
line, at the window as usual, was looking at the Countess 
and her daughter as they made their tour of the garden. 
On this morning* she saw them with shoes upon their feet 
that a rag-picker would have scorned to pick up. 

“ Ah ! the poor women ! ” she murmured, “ how terrible 
and distressing it must be, this comedy of luxury which 
they think themselves obliged to play ! ” 

And she drew back, hiding herself behind the window- 
curtain, for fear the mother might see her and suffer more 
from being thus watched. She herself had grown calmer 
during the three weeks that she had forgotten herself 
every morning at this window : the great sorrow of her 
abandonment was quieting down ; it seemed as if the 
sight of the disaster of others caused her to accept more 
courageously her own, this fall which she had supposed 
to be the fall of her entire life. Again she surprised her- 
self laughing. 

A moment longer she followed the two women in the 
garden green with moss, with a deep and dreamy air. 
Then, quickly turning around toward Saccard, she said : 

“Tell me, then, why I cannot be sad. No, that does 
not last ; it has never lasted ; I cannot be sad, whatever 
happens to me. Is it egoism ? Really, I do not think 
so. That would be too wicked ; and besides it is in vain 
that I am gay, my heart is ready to break just the same 
at sight of the least sorrow. Reconcile these things : I 
am gay, and I should weep over all the unfortunates who 
pass if I did not restrain myself, understanding that the 
smallest bit of bread would serve their purpose better 
than my useless tears.” 

In saying this, she laughed her beautiful brave laugh, 
like a courageous woman who prefers action to idle ex- 
clamations of pity. 

“God knows, however,” she continued, “whether I 
have had occasion to despair of everything ! Ah ! for- 
tune has not spoiled me so far. After my marriage, in 
the hell into which I had fallen, insulted, beaten, I really 
believed that there was nothing left for me but to throw 
myself into the water. I did not throw myself into the 


MONEY. 


73 

water; a fortnight later, when I had started with my 
brother for the Orient, I was bubbling with cheerfulness, 
swollen with an immense hope. And at the time of our 
return to Paris, when almost everything failed us, I passed 
abominable nights, in which I saw ourselves dying of 
hunger on our fine projects. We did not die ; again I 
began to dream of enormous things, happy things, that 
made me laugh sometimes at myself. And lately, when 
I received that frightful blow of which I still do not dare 
to speak, my heart seemed as if uprooted ; yes, I positive- 
ly felt it stop beating ; I thought all was ended, I believed 
myself ended / annihilated. But not at all ! Here is ex- 
istence resuming its command of me ; I laugh to-day, to- 
morrow I shall hope ; I would like to live on, to live for 
ever. Is it not extraordinary that I cannot long be sad ? ” 

Saccard, who was laughingalso, shrugged his shoulders. 

“ Bah ! you are like the rest of the world. Such is 
life.” 

“ Do you think so?” she cried, with astonishment. “ It 
sepms to me that there are some people so sad that they 
never know a gay moment, people who render life impos- 
sible to themselves, in such dark colors do they paint it. 
Oh ! not that I entertain any illusion as to the gentleness 
and beauty which it offers. It has been too hard ; I have 
seen it too closely, everywhere and freely. It is execra- 
ble when it is not ignoble. But, what can you do ? I 
love it. Why? I do not know. In vain does everything 
tumble and go to ruin around me ; on the morrow I find 
myself standing on the ruins just the same, gay and con- 
fident. I have often thought that my case is, in minia- 
ture, the case of humanity, which certainly lives in fright- 
ful poverty, but is cheered by the youth of each genera- 
tion. After every crisis that beats me down comes some- 
thing like a new youth, a springtime whose promises of 
sap warm me and give me a new heart. So true is this 
that, after some severe affliction, if I go out into the 
street in the sunshine, I straightway begin to love again, 
to hope, to be happy. And age has no influence upon 
me ; I am simple enough to grow old without noticing it. 
You see, I have read a great deal too much for a woman ; 


74 


MoisrËŸ. 


I no longer know at all where I am going, any more than 
this vast world knows where it is going, for that matter. 
Only, in spite of myself, it seems to me that I am going, 
and that we are all going, to something very good and 

thoroughly gay.” . . , 

She ended by turning the matter into jest, moved 
nevertheless, trying to hide the emotion of her hope ; 
while her brother, who had raised his head, looked at hei 
with an adoration full of gratitude. 

« Oh ! you,” he declared, “ you are made for catastro- 
phes, you are love of life.” 

In these daily conversations of the morning, a fever had 
gradually become pronounced ; and if Madame Caroline 
returned to that natural joy inherent in her health itself, 
this was due to the courage that Saccard brought them, 
with his active zeal for the great enterprises. It was a 
thing almost decided ; they were going to explore the 
famous portfolio. The sound of his shrill voice animated 
and exaggerated everything. In the first place, they 
would lay hands on the Mediterranean, conquer it by the 
General Company of United Steamers; and he enumer- 
ated the ports of all the countries on the coast where 
they would establish stations, and he mingled effaced 
classical recollections with his speculator’s enthusiasm, 
celebrating this sea, the only one which the old world 
had known, this blue sea around which civilization has 
flourished, and whose waves bathed the ancient cities, 
Athens, Rome, Tyre, Alexandria, Carthage, Marseilles, 
all those that have made Europe. Then, when they had 
assured themselves of this vast highway to the Orient, 
they would begin down there in Syria, with the little 
matter of the Carmel Silver Mining Company, just a few 
millions to make in passing, but an excellent launching, 
for this idea of a silver mine, of money found in the earth 
and thrown up by the shovelful, was still an exciting one 
to the public, especially when they could label it with a 
prodigious and resounding name like that of Carmel. 
There were also coal mines there, coal just beneath the 
rock, which would be worth gold when the country should 
be covered with factories ; to say nothing of other 


MONEY. 7$ 

smaller enterprises which would serve to fill up the inter- 
vals, the establishment of banks, syndicates for flourish- 
ing industries, an exploitation of the vast forests of the 
Libanos range, whose giant trees were rotting where they 
stood, for want of roads. And finally he came to the 
giant morsel, to the Oriental Railway Company, and then 
he began to rave, for this system of iron ways, cast like a 
net over Asia Minor from one end to the other, was to 
him speculation, the life of money, taking at one stroke 
this old world, like a new prey, still intact, of incalculable 
wealth, concealed under the ignorance and scum of cen- 
turies. He scented the treasure, he neighed like a war- 
horse at the odor of battle. 

Madame Caroline, possessed of solid good sense and 
not accustomed to be easily influenced by exciting imagi- 
nations, suffered herself nevertheless to share this en- 
thusiasm, and no longer clearly saw its extravagance. In 
truth, it acted as a caress upon her tenderness for the 
Orient, her desire to see again that wonderful country, 
where she had thought herself happy ; and, without calcu- 
lation, by a logical counter-effect, it was she who, by her 
colored descriptions and abundant information, more and 
more stimulated the fever of Saccard. When she began 
to talk of Beyrout, where she had lived for three years, 
she could not stop : Beyrout, at the foot of the Libanos 
range, on its tongue of land, between beaches of red sand 
and piles of fallen rock, Beyrout with its houses arranged 
in the form of an amphitheatre, amid vast gardens, a de- 
lightful paradise planted with orange, lemon, and palm 
trees. Then there were all the cities of the coast : to the 
north, Antioch, fallen from its splendor; to the south, 
Saida, the old Sidon, Saint-Jean-d’Acre, Jaffa, and Tyre, 
now Sur, which sums them all up : Tyre, whose merchants 
were kings, whose sailors had made the circuit of Africa, 
and which to-day, with its harbor filled with sand, is 
nothing but a field of ruins, a dust of palaces, where rise, 
miserable and scattered, only a few fishermen's huts. 
She had accompanied her brother everywhere ; she knew 
Aleppo, Angora, Broussa, Smyrna, and even Trebizond ; 
she had lived a month at Jerusalem, sleeping amid the 


MONEY. 



traffic of the holy places; then two months more at Da- 
mascus, the queen of the Orient, in the centre of its vast 
plains, the commercial and industrial city, of which the 
caravans from Mecca and Bagdad make a centre swarm- 
ing with people. She knew also the valleys and the 
mountains, the villages of the Maronites and of the Druses 
perched upon the table-lands, lost in the depths of gorges, 
cultivated fields and sterile fields. And from the smallest 
corners, from the silent deserts as from the great cities, 
she had brought back the same admiration for inexhaust- 
ible, luxuriant nature, the same wrath against stupid and 
bad men. How much natural wealth disdained or wasted ! 
She spoke of the burdens that crushed commerce and 
industry, the imbecile law that prevents the investment 
of more than a certain amount of capital in agriculture, and 
the routine that leaves in the hands of peasants the plough 
which was in use before the days of Jesus Christ, and the 
ignorance in which these millions of men are sunk even 
to-day, like idiotic children arrested in their growth. 
Formerly the coast seemed too small, the cities touched 
each other; now life had gone away toward the Occident ; 
they seemed to be traversing an immense, abandoned 
cemetery. No schools, no roads, the worst of govern- 
ments, justice sold, an execrable civil service, too heavy 
taxes, absurd laws, idleness, fanaticism ; to say nothing of 
the continual shocks of civil wars, massacres which de- 
stroyed entire villages. Then she became angry, and 
asked if it was allowable thus to spoil the work of nature, 
a blessed land, of exquisite charm, where all climates 
were to be found, — the glowing plains, the temperate 
mountain-sides, the perpetual snows of the peaks. And 
her love of life, her deeply-rooted hope, filled her with 
enthusiasm at the idea of the all-powerful magic wand 
with which science and speculation could strike this old 
and sleeping earth and reawaken it. 

“ Stay ! ” cried Saccard, “ that Carmel gorge, which you 
have sketched there, where there are only stones and 
mastic-trees, well ! as soon as we begin to work the silver 
mine, there will start up first a village, then a city. And 
we will clean out all these harbors obstructed by sand ; 


MONEY. 


77 


we will protect them with strong breakwaters. Large 
ships will anchor where now boats do not dare to moor. 
And in these depopulated plains, these deserted passes, 
which our iron ways will traverse, you will see a complete 
resurrection, yes! fields cleared, roads and canals built, 
new cities springing from the soil, life returning at last as 
it returns to a sick body, when, in the impoverished veins, 
we stimulate the circulation with new blood. Yes ! 
money will work these miracles.” 

And, in the evocation of this piercing voice, Madame 
Caroline really saw the predicted civilization rising. 
These dry diagrams, these linear sketches, became ani- 
mated and peopled : it was the dream that she had some- 
times had of an Orient washed of its filth, drawn from its 
ignorance, enjoying the fertile soil and the charming sky, 
with all the refinements of science. Already she had wit- 
nessed such a miracle, that Port-Said which in so few 
years had just grown up on a naked beach ; at first huts 
to shelter the few laborers who began the operations, 
then the city of two thousand souls, the city of ten thou- 
sand souls, houses, immense stores, a gigantic pier, life 
and comfort persistently created by human ants. And it 
was just this that she saw rising again, the march for- 
ward, irresistible, the social impulse rushing on to the 
greatest possible happiness, the need of action, of going 
ahead, without knowing exactly whither, but of going 
more at ease, under better conditions ; and the globe up- 
set by the ant-hill rebuilding its house, and the continual 
labor of new enjoyments conquered, the power of man 
increased ten-fold, the earth belonging to him more and 
more every day. Money, aiding science, caused progress. 

Hamelin, who was listening with a smile, then uttered 
a prudent word. 

“ All that is the poetry of results, and we are not yet 
at the prose of working up the enterprise.” 

But Saccard’s enthusiasm was only increased by the 
extravagance of her conceptions, especially on the day 
when, having begun to read books about the Orient, he 
opened a history of the Egyptian expedition. Already 
the memory of the Crusades haunted him, that return of 


73 


MONEY. 


the Occident to the Orient, its cradle, that grand move- 
ment which had carried extreme Europe back to the 
original country, still in full flower, and where there was 
so much to learn. But the towering figure of Napoleon 
struck him still more, going there to wage war, with a 
grand and mysterious object. Though he talked of con- 
quering Egypt, of installing a French establishment 
there, and of giving thus to France the Levantine com- 
merce, he certainly did not say all ; and Saccard was de- 
termined to see, in the aspect of the expedition which 
has remained vague and enigmatical, he knew not just 
what project of colossal ambition, an immense empire re- 
constructed, Napoleon crowned at Constantinople, Em- 
peror of the Orient and the Indies, realizing the dream 
of Alexander, greater than Caesar and Charlemagne. Did 
he not say at Saint Helena, in speaking of Sydney, the 
English general who had stopped him before Saint-Jean- 
d’Acre : “ That man ruined my fortune ” ? And it was 
this gigantic thought of the conquest of the Orient, which 
the Crusades had attempted and which Napoleon had 
been unable to accomplish, that inflamed Saccard ; a ra- 
tional conquest, however, to be realized by the double 
power of science and money. Since civilization had gone 
from the east to the west, why should it not come back 
toward the east, returning to the first garden of humanity, 
to that Eden of the Hindostan peninsula, which slept in 
the fatigue of the centuries ? It would be a new youth ; 
he galvanized the earthly paradise, he made it habitable 
again by steam and electricity, replaced Asia Minor as 
the centre of the old world, as the point of intersection 
of the great natural highways which bind the continents 
together. It was no longer millions to gain, but billions 
and billions. 

After that, every morning, Hamelin and he had long 
conversations. Though the hope was vast, difficulties 
presented themselves, numerous and enormous. The 
engineer, who was at Beyrout in 1862 at the very time of 
the horrible butchery which the Druses inflicted upon the 
Christian Maronites and which necessitated the interven- 
tion of France, did not conceal the obstacles which were 


MONEY. 


79 


to be met among those populations in continual battle, 
abandoned to the caprice of local authorities. But at 
Constantinople he had powerful relations ; he had assured 
himself the support of the grand vizier, Fuad-Pacha, a 
man of great merit, an avowed partisan of reforms ; and 
he flattered himself that from him he would obtain all 
the necessary grants. On the other hand, although he 
prophesied the inevitable bankruptcy of the Ottoman 
Empire, he saw rather a favorable circumstance in this 
unlimited need of money, in these loans which succeeded 
each other annually: a needy government, though it 
offers no personal guarantee, is all ready to come to an 
understanding with private enterprises as soon as it sees 
the slightest profit in them. And was not this a practical 
way of solving the eternal and embarrassing Eastern ques- 
tion, by interesting the empire in great works of civili- 
zation, leading it little by little to progress, that it might 
be no longer that monstrous barrier planted between 
Europe and Asia ? What a fine patriotic rôle the French 
Companies would play in all this ! 

Then, one morning, tranquilly, Hamelin broached the 
secret programme to which he sometimes alluded, that 
which he smilingly called the crowning of the edifice. 

“ Then, when we shall be masters, we will restore the 
kingdom of Palestine, and put the Pope there. First we 
may content ourselves with Jerusalem, having Jaffa as a 
sea-port. Then Syria will be declared independent, and 
can be annexed. You know that the time is near when 
the Papacy will be unable to remain at Rome under the 
revolting humiliations that are being prepared for it. It 
is for that day that we shall have to be ready.” 

Saccard listened with mouth wide open, as he said 
these things in a simple /voice, with his profound faith of 
a Catholic. He himself did not shrink from extravagant 
imaginations, but never would he have gone to such a 
point. This man of science, apparently so cold, as- 
tounded him. 

“ Madness ! ” he cried. “ The Porte will not give up 
Jerusalem.” 

“ Oh! why not?” rejoined Hamelin, quietly. “It has 


8o 


MONEY. 


such need of money! Jerusalem is a burden to it ; it 
will be a good riddance. Often it does not know what 
course to take between the various communions which 
dispute with each other for possession of the sanctuaries. 
Moreover, the Pope will have in Syria a veritable support 
among the Maronites, for you are not unaware that he 
has established at Rome a college for their priests. In 
fact I have thought the matter out carefully, calculated 
everything, and this will be the new era, the triumphant 
era, of Catholicism. Perhaps it will be said that this is 
going too far away, that the Pope will find himself in iso- 
lation, disinterested in European affairs. But with what 
brilliancy, with what authority, will he not radiate when 
he shall be enthroned in sacred places, speaking in the 
name of Christ from the Holy Land where Christ has 
spoken! That is his patrimony, there must be his king- 
dom. And rest easy, we will build this kingdom power- 
ful and solid ; we will put it beyond the reach of political 
disturbances, by basing its budget, with a guarantee of the 
resources of the country, on a vast bank, for the shares of 
which the Catholics of the entire world will dispute with 
each other/’ 

Saccard, who had begun to smile, already attracted by 
the magnitude of the project, although not convinced, 
could not help christening this bank, with a joyous shout 
of discovery. 

“ The Treasury of the Holy Sepulchre, eh ? superb! 
There you have it ! ” 

But he met the reasonable glance of Madame Caroline, 
who was smiling also, sceptically and even a little vexedly ; 
and he was ashamed of his enthusiasm. 

“ No matter, my dear Hamelin, it behooves us to keep 
secret this crowning of the edifice, as you call it. Perhaps 
they would laugh at us. And besides, our programme is 
already terribly loaded down ; it is a good plan to reserve 
the extreme consequences, the glorious end, for the initi- 
ated alone.” 

“Undoubtedly; such has always been my intention,” 
declared the engineer. “ That shall be the mystery.” • 

And upon this word, that very day, the exploitation of 


MONEY. 


8l 


the portfolio, the working up of the whole enormous 
series of projects, was definitely resolved upon. They 
would begin by establishing a modest house of credit, to 
launch the first enterprises ; then, success aiding, little by 
little, they would gain the mastery of the market and 
conquer the world. 

The next day, as Saccard was going up to take an order 
from the Princess d’Orviedo regarding the Work of Labor, 
the recollection came back to him of the dream that he 
had cherished for a moment of being the prince consort 
of this queen of charity, a simple dispenser and adminis- 
trator of the fortune of the poor. And he smiled, for 
now he thought this a little silly. He was built to make 
life, and not to dress the wounds that life has made. In 
short, he was about to find himself at his work again, in 
the thick of the battle of interests, in that race for happi- 
ness which has been the very progress of humanity, from 
century to century, toward greater joy and greater light. 

That same day he found Madame Caroline alone in the 
work-room among the diagrams. She was standing at 
one of the windows, held there by an appearance of the 
Countess de Beauvilliers and her daughter, in the neigh- 
boring garden, at an unusual hour. The two women 
were reading a letter with an air of deep sadness, un- 
doubtedly a letter from the son, Ferdinand, whose situa- 
tion at Rome could not be a brilliant one. 

“ Look,” said Madame Caroline, on recognizing Sac- 
card. “ Another sorrow for those unfortunates. The 
poor women in the street give me less pain.” 

“ Bah ! ” he cried, gayly, “you shall ask them to come 
to s.ee me. We will enrich them also, since we are to 
make everybody’s fortune.” 

And, in his happy fever, he sought her lips, to kiss 
them. But with a sudden movement she drew b^ck her, 
head, becoming grave and pale from an involuntary fqeh 
ing of uneasiness. 

“ No, I beg of you.” 

It was the first time that he had attempted to approach 
her since she had abandoned herself to him in a moment 
of complete unconsciousness. The serious matters ar- 


8 2 


MONEY. 


ranged, he thought of his good fortune, desiring to regu- 
late the situation in that direction also. This quick 
movement of recoil astonished him a little. 

“ Really, that would give you pain ? ” 

“ Yes, much pain/’ 

She calmed herself, and smiled in her turn. 

“ Moreover, admit that your heart is not absolutely set 
upon it.” 

“ Oh ! I adore you.” 

“ No, do not say that, you are going to be so busy. 
And then, I assure you that I am ready to have real 
friendship for you, if you are the active man that I think, 
and if you do all the great things that you say. Come, it 
is much better, friendship!” 

He listened to her, still smiling, yet as one thwarted 
and resisted. She refused him ; it was ridiculous to have 
possessed her only once, by surprise. But his vanity alone 
suffered. 

“Then, friends only?” 

“Yes, I will be your comrade, I will aid you. Friends, 
great friends ! ” 

She offered him her cheeks, and he, conquered, and 
seeing that she was right, imprinted two loud kisses upon 
them. 


III. 


The letter from the Russian banker at Constantinople, 
which Sigismond had translated, was a favorable reply, 
awaited before setting the enterprise in motion in Paris ; 
and, the next day but one, Saccard, on waking, had an 
inspiration that the day for acting had come, and that 
before night he must form at one stroke the syndicate of 
which he wished to be sure, in order to place in advance 
the fifty thousand shares of five hundred francs each in 
his joint stock company, launched with a capital of 
twenty-five millions. 

As he jumped out of bed, he had just thought at last 
of a name for this company, the sign for which he had 
been long searching. The words Universal Bank had 
suddenly flamed up before him, like characters of fire, in 
the still dark room. 

“The Universal Bank,” he did not cease to repeat 
while dressing, “the Universal Bank, that is simple, that 
is grand, it takes in everything, it covers the world. . . . 
Yes, yes, excellent ! the Universal Bank ! ” 

Until half-past nine he walked up and down the 
spacious rooms, absorbed, not knowing where to begin 
his hunt for the millions, in Paris. Twenty-five millions, 
that sum is still to be found at the street corner; it was 
rather the embarrassment of the choice that made him re- 
flect, for he wished to proceed with some method. He 
drank a glass of milk, and showed no vexation when the 
coachman came up to tell him that the horse was not 
well, having caught cold undoubtedly, and that it would 
be more prudent to send for the veterinary surgeon. 

“ All right, do so. I will take a cab.” 

But oji the sidewalk he was surprised by the piercing 


8 4 


MONEY. 


wind that was blowing, a sudden return of winter in this 
month of May which only the night before was so mild. 
It was not yet raining, though thick yellow clouds were 
rising at the horizon. And he did not take a cab, think- 
ing to keep warm by walking ; he said that he would first 
go on foot to the office of Mazaud, the broker, in the Rue 
de la Banque ; for he had an idea of sounding him re- 
garding Daigremont, the well-known speculator, the lucky 
man of all syndicates. But, on reaching the Rue Vivi- 
enne, from the sky overspread with livid clouds, such a 
shower burst forth, mingled with hail, that he took refuge 
under a carriage-way. 

For a minute Saccard had been standing there, watch- 
ing the falling of the rain, when, rising above the pour of 
the water, the jingling sound of gold pieces attracted his 
attention. It seemed to come from the bowels of the 
earth, continuous, light, and musical, as in a tale of the 
“ Thousand and One Nights.” He turned his head, recog- 
nized his situation, and saw that he was standing in the 
doorway of the house of Kolb, a banker who devoted 
himself especially to dealing in gold, buying specie in 
States where it was cheap, then melting it and selling it 
in ingots elsewhere, in countries where gold was dear ; 
and from morning till night, on casting days, there rose 
from the basement this crystalline sound of gold coins, 
carried about by the shovelful, taken in boxes and thrown 
into the melting-pot. The ears of the passers-by on the 
sidewalk rang with the sound, from year’s end to year’s 
end. Now Saccard smiled with satisfaction at this music, 
which was like the subterranean voice of this neighbor- 
hood of the Bourse. He saw in it a happy omen. 

The rain had ceased ; he crossed the square, and found 
himself straightway at Mazaud’s. An unusual circum- 
stance, the young broker occupied as his personal residence 
apartments on the second floor of the very house whose 
third floor was wholly used for his business offices. He 
had simply taken his uncle’s rooms, when, on the death 
of the latter, he had agreed with his joint heirs to pur- 
chase the business. 

It was striking ten o’clock, and Saccard went straight 


MONEV. £5 

up to the offices, at the door of which he met Gustave 
Sédille. 

“ Is Monsieur Mazaud in?” 

“ I do not know, Monsieur ; I have just come.’' 

The young man smiled, always late, taking at his ease 
his employment as a simple amateur without salary, re- 
signed to thus spending a year or two to please his father, 
the silk manufacturer in the Rue des Jeûneurs. 

Saccard passed through the cash-office, saluted by the 
money-cashier and the stock-cashier ; then he entered the 
office of the two attorneys, where he found only Berthier, 
the one who was intrusted with the dealings with customers, 
and who accompanied his employer to the Bourse. 

“ Is Monsieur Mazaud in ? ” 

“ Why, I think so ; I just left his private office. . . . But 
no, he is not there. ... He must be in the counting-room.” 

He pushed open a neighboring door, and made a tour 
with his eyes of a rather large room, in which five 
employees were at work, under the orders of the head 
clerk. 

“ No, that’s strange! Look for yourself in the liquida- 
tion office, there, at the side.” 

Saccard entered the liquidation office. It was there 
that the liquidator, the pivot of the business, aided by 
seven employees, summed up the memorandum-book, 
handed him every day by the broker after the Bourse, 
and then charged to the customers the transactions ex- 
ecuted according to the orders received, referring to the 
fiches , kept for the sake of the names ; for the names were 
not in the memorandum-book, which contained only a brief 
indication of the purchase or sale : such a stock, such an 
amount, at such a rate, from such a broker. 

“ Have you seen Monsieur Mazaud ? ” inquired Saccard. 

But they did not even answer him. The liquidator 
having gone out, three employees were reading their news- 
papers and two others were gazing into the air ; while the 
entrance of Gustave Sédille had just keenly interested the 
little Flory, who in the morning kept accounts and ex- 
changed engagements and in the afternoon looked after 
the telegrams at the Bourse. Born at Saintes, of a father 


86 


MONÈV. 


employed in the registry of deeds, at first a clerk for a 
Bordeaux banker and then tumbling into Mazaud’s at Paris 
toward the end of the previous autumn, he had no other 
future than a possible doubling of his salary in ten years’ 
time. Hitherto he had conducted himself well, perform- 
ing his duties regularly and conscientiously. But during 
the last month, since Gustave had entered the office, he 
had become irregular, influenced by his new comrade, 
very elegant, very well started, provided with money, and 
who had made him acquainted with women. Flory, whose 
face was hidden by a beard, had underneath it a passionate 
nose, a lovable mouth, and soft eyes; and he indulged 
himself in little secret pleasure parties, not expensive, 
with Mademoiselle Chuchu, a figurante at the Variétés, a 
thin grasshopper from the Parisian pavements, the runaway 
daughter of a Montmartre janitress, amusing with her 
papier-maché face in which large and admirable brown 
eyes gleamed. 

Gustave, even before taking off his hat, told him of his 
evening. 

“Yes, my dear fellow, I really thought that Germaine 
would pitch me out-doors, because Jacoby came. But it 
was he whom she found a way of showing to the door, 
though I don’t know how. And I stayed.” 

Both choked with laughter. They were talking of Ger- 
maine Cœur, a superb girl of twenty-five, rather indolent 
and sluggish, in the opulence of her bosom, whom one of 
Mazaud’s colleagues, the Jew, Jacoby, kept by the month. 
She had always been with speculators, and always by the 
month, which is convenient for very busy men, with heads 
full of figures, paying for love as for everything else, with- 
out finding time for a true passion. She was agitated by 
a single anxiety, in her little suite of rooms in the Rue de 
la Michodière, — how to prevent meetings between gentle- 
men who might be acquainted with each other. 

“ But say,” questioned Flory, “ I thought that you kept 
yourself for the stationer’s beautiful wife.” 

This allusion to Madame Conin made Gustave serious. 
She was respected : she was an honest woman, and when 
she was accommodating, there was not an instance where 


MONEY. 


87 


a man had shown any tendency to gossip, such good 
friends did they remain. Accordingly, not wishing to 
reply, Gustave put a question himself. 

“ And Chuchu, did you take her to the Mabille ? ” 

“ No, indeed ! it is too expensive. We went to her 
room and made tea.” 

Saccard, standing behind the young people, had heard 
these women’s names, which they whispered with rapid 
voices. He smiled, and addressed himself to Flory. 

“ Have you not seen Monsieur Mazaud ? ” 

“ Yes, Monsieur, he came to give me an order, and 
then went down again to his apartments. I believe that 
his little boy is sick : he was notified that the doctor had 
come. You had better ring at his door, for he is very 
likely to go out without coming up again.” 

Saccard thanked him, and hurried down to the next 
floor. Mazaud was one of the youngest brokers, over- 
whelmed with good fortune, having had the luck to lose 
his uncle, thereby becoming proprietor of one of the 
largest businesses in Paris, at an age when one can still 
learn business. With his little figure he had an agreeable 
face, with a small brown moustache and piercing black 
eyes ; and he showed a great activity, a very alert mind. 
He was already known at the corbeille for this vivacity of 
mind and body, so necessary in his calling, and which, 
coupled with a keen scent, a remarkable intuition, was 
sure to place him in the first rank ; to say nothing of the 
fact that he had a shrill voice, was in receipt of direct in- 
formation from foreign stock-exchanges, had relations 
with all the great bankers, and was said to have a second 
cousin in the Agence Havas.* His wife, married for 
love, had brought him a dowry of twelve hundred thou- 
sand francs, a charming young woman who had already 
presented him with two children, a little girl of three 
years and a little boy of eighteen months. 

Mazaud was just escorting the doctor to the stairs, 
while the latter was reassuring him with a laugh. 

“Come in,” said Mazaud to Saccard. “ It is true, with 

* A French news agency, corresponding to the Associated Press. — 
Translator . 


88 


MONEY. 


these little creatures one becomes anxious directly ; the 
slightest ailment, and one thinks them lost.” 

And thus he introduced him into the reception-room, 
where his wife was still sitting, holding the baby on her 
knees, while the little girl, glad to see her mother gay, 
was reaching up to kiss her. All three were blonde, with 
complexions of milky freshness, the young mother seem- 
ing as delicate and artless as the children. He imprinted 
a kiss upon her hair. 

“ You see that we were foolish.” 

“Ah! that makes no difference, my friend; I am so 
glad that he has reassured us ! ” 

In presence of this great happiness Saccard halted, 
bowing. The room, luxuriously furnished, was permeated 
with the happy life of this household which nothing had 
yet disunited : during his four years of married life 
scarcely had Mazaud been accused of a fleeting curiosity 
regarding a singer at the Opéra Comique. He remained 
a faithful husband, just as he had the reputation of not 
yet speculating too heavily on his own account, in spite 
of the impetuosity of his youth. And this good odor of 
luck, of unclouded felicity, was really to be breathed in 
the discreet peace of the carpets and the hangings, and 
in the perfume with which a large bouquet of roses, over- 
flowing a china vase, had impregnated the entire room. 

Madame Mazaud, who was slightly acquainted with 
Saccard, said to him gayly: 

“ Is it not true, Monsieur, that it needs but the wish in 
order to be always happy ? ” 

“I am convinced of it, Madame,” he answered. “ And 
besides, there are persons so beautiful and good that mis- 
fortune never dares to touch them.” 

She had risen, radiant. She kissed her husband in her 
turn and went out, carrying the little boy and followed 
by the little girl, who had been hanging on her father’s 
neck. The latter, wishing to hide his emotion, turned 
toward the visitor with a word of Parisian brag. 

“You see, our life here is not a stupid one.”* 

Then he added quickly : 


MONEY. 


89 

“You have something to say to me? Let us go up- 
stairs, if you will. It is a better place to talk.” 

Above,, in front of the cash-office, Saccard recognized 
Sabatani, who had come to collect the balance due him ; 
and he was surprised at the cordial hand-shake which the 
broker exchanged with his customer. However, as soon 
as he was seated in the private office, he explained his 
visit, questioning Mazaud as to the formalities necessary 
to secure the admission of a stock to the official list of 
quotations. In a careless way he spoke of the affair which 
he intended to launch, the Universal Bank, with a capital 
of twenty-five millions. Yes, a house of credit established 
especially to patronize great enterprises, which he indi- 
cated with a word. Mazaud listened to him with perfect 
composure, and then, in the most obliging way, explained 
the formalities to be observed. But he was not a dupe ; 
he suspected that Saccard would not have gone out of his 
way for so small a matter. So, when the latter finally 
uttered the name Daigremont, he gave an involuntary 
smile. Certainly Daigremont had the support of a colos- 
sal fortune ; it was said indeed that his fidelity was not of 
the surest ; but who is faithful, in business and in love ? 
Nobody ! For the rest, he, Mazaud, would be scrupulous 
in telling^the truth about Daigremont, after their rupture, 
which had been the talk of the entire Bourse. Now the 
latter gave most of his orders to Jacoby, a Bordeaux Jew, 
a tall man of sixty, with a broad, gay face, whose roaring 
voice was celebrated, but who was growing heavy and 
pot-bellied ; and there was a sort of rivalry between the 
two brokers, the young man favored by fortune, the elder 
by long standing, a former attorney, who with the aid of 
silent partners had finally succeeded in purchasing his 
employer’s business, of extraordinary experience and 
shrewdness, ruined unfortunately by his passion for spec- 
ulation, always on the eve of a catastrophe in spite of 
considerable profits. Everything melted away in liquida- 
tions. Germaine Cœur cost him only a few thousand- 
franc notes, and his wife was never seen. 

“ But then, in that Caraccas affair,” concluded Mazaud, 
yielding to resentment in spite of his scrupulousness, “ it 


MONEY. 


9Ô 

is certain that Daigremont played false and swept away 
the profits. He is very dangerous.” 

Then, after a silence, he added : 

“ But why don’t you apply to Gundermann ? ” 

“ Never,” cried Saccard, in a fit of passion. 

Just then, Berthier, the attorney, came in and whispered 
a few words in the broker’s ear. The Baroness Sandorff 
had come to pay her balances and was raising all sorts 
of quibbles to reduce her account. Usually Mazaud 
hastened to receive the Baroness himself ; but, when she 
had lost, he avoided her like the pest, certain of too severe 
a strain upon his gallantry. There are no worse clients 
than women, of absolutely bad faith as soon as they have 
to pay. 

“ No, no, tell her that I am not in,” he answered, test- 
ily. “ And do not deduct a centime, do you understand ? ” 

And, when Berthier had gone, seeing by Saccard’s smile 
that he had heard, he continued : 

“ It is true, my dear fellow, she is very agreeable, but 
you have no idea of her rapacity. Ah ! these customers, 
how they would love us, if they always won ! And the 
richer they are, the higher the society in which they move, 
God forgive me ! the more I distrust them, the more I 
tremble for my pay. Yes, there are days when, outside of 
the large houses, I could wish that I had an exclusively 
provincial patronage.” 

Just then a clerk from the counting-room came in to 
hand him a record which he had asked for that morning, 
and went out. 

“Well, this is a curious coincidence. Here now is a 
receiver of dividends, located at Vendôme, a certain Fay- 
eux. You have no idea of the number of orders that I 
receive from this correspondent. To be sure, these orders 
are of little importance, coming from the small bourgeoisie, 
the small merchants and farmers. But there are so many 
of them. Really, the best of our business, the very foun- 
dation of it, consists of the modest players, the great 
anonymous crowd which plays.” 

An association of ideas caused Saccard to recall Saba- 
tani at the wicket of the cash-office. 


money. 


9 * 


u Then you have Sabatani now?” he inquired. 

“ I have had him for a year, I believe,” replied the 
broker, with an air of amiable indifference. “ He is a 
pleasant fellow, isn’t he? He began in a small way, he is 
very prudent, and he will make something.” 

What he did not say, what he no longer even remem- 
bered, was that Sabatani had deposited with him a guar- 
antee of only two thousand francs. Hence the moderate 
stakes at the beginning. Undoubtedly, like so many 
others, the Levantine expected the insignificance of this 
guarantee to be forgotten ; and he gave proofs of pru- 
dence, increasing the size of his orders only gradually, 
pending the day when, tumbling in an immense liquida- 
tion, he would disappear. How show distrust toward 
such a charming fellow, whose friend one has become? 
How doubt his solvency when one sees him gay, richly 
dressed, with that elegant deportment which is indispen- 
sable, the very uniform of robbery at the Bourse? 

“ Very pleasant, very intelligent,” repeated Saccard, 
suddenly forming a resolution to remember Sabatani on 
the day when he should need a discreet and unscrupulous 
fellow. 

Then, rising and taking his leave, he said : 

“ Well, good-bye ! When our stock is ready, I will see 
you again, before trying to get it admitted to the stock- 
list.” 

And as Mazaud shook hands with him in the door-way, 
saying : 

“You are wrong; better see Gundermann for your 
syndicate,” 

“ Never ! ” he shouted again, furiously. 

Finally, as he went out, he recognized Moser and Pille- 
rault at the wicket of the cash-office : the first was pocket- 
ing with a distressed air his fortnight’s profits of seven or 
eight thousand-franc notes ; while the other, who had lost, 
paid ten thousand francs with a loud voice and an aggres- 
sive and superb air, as if after a victory. The hour for 
breakfast and the Bourse was approaching, soon the office 
would be partly emptied ; and through the half-open door 
of the liquidation department came the sound of laughter, 


92 


MONEY. 


a story which Gustave was telling Flory of a canoe party 
in which the barreuse , falling into the Seine, had lost even 
her stockings. 

In the street Saccard looked at his watch. Eleven 
o’clock, how much time lost ! No, he would not go to 
Daigremont’s ; and, although he had flown into a passion 
at the very mention of Gundermann, he suddenly decided 
to go to see him. Besides, had he not warned him of 
his visit, at Champeaux’ restaurant, to nail his malicious 
laugh to his lips ? He even excused himself on the ground 
that he did not wish to get anything out of him, that he 
simply desired to confront and triumph over the man who 
affected to treat him as a little boy. And, a fresh shower 
having begun to inundate the pavements with a river of 
water, he leaped into a cab and shouted to the coachman 
the address, Rue de Provence. 

There Gundermann occupied an immense mansion, just 
large enough for his innumerable family. He had five 
daughters and four sons, of whom three daughters and 
three sons were married, and these had already given him 
fourteen grandchildren. When, at the evening meal, 
this progeny was gathered, there were thirty-one at table, 
counting his wife and himself. And, with the exception 
of two of his sons-in-law who did not live in the mansion, 
all had their apartments there, in the left and right wings 
opening upon the garden ; while the central building was 
used entirely for the vast banking offices. In less than a 
century the monstrous fortune of a billion had originated 
and grown, overflowing into this family, through economy 
as well as the happy assistance of events. It was a sort 
of predestination, aided by keen intelligence, persistent 
labor, prudent and invincible effort, continually directed 
to the same end. Now all the rivers of gold flowed into 
this sea, millions lost themselves in these millions, it was 
a swallowing-up of the public wealth in the abyss of this 
wealth of a single individual, always increasing; and 
Gundermann was the true master, the omnipotent king 
feared and obeyed by Paris and by the world. 

As Saccard ascended the broad stone stairway, the 
steps of which were worn by the continual going and 


MONEY. 


93 


coming of the crowd, more worn already than the thresh- 
olds of old churches, he felt rising within him an inextin- 
guishable hatred for this man. Ah! the Jew! he had 
against the Jew the old race resentment, which is found 
especially in the South of France ; and it was something 
like a revolt of his very flesh, a repugnance of the skin, 
which, at the idea of the slightest contact, filled him with 
disgust and violence, beyond the reach of reasoning, which 
he could not overcome. But the singular thing was that 
he, Saccard, this terrible brewer of business, this scatterer 
of money with doubtful hands, lost consciousness of him- 
self whenever a Jew was in question, and spoke of him 
with harshness, with the revengeful indignation of an 
honest man, living by the labor of his arms, unspotted by 
any usurious dealing. He drew up an indictment against 
the race, the cursed race without a country, without a 
prince, which lives as a parasite upon the nations, pre- 
tending to recognize the laws, but really obeying only its 
God of robbery, blood, and wrath ; and he pointed to it 
fulfilling everywhere the mission of ferocious conquest 
which this God has given it, establishing itself among 
every people, like the spider in the centre of its web, to 
watch its prey, to suck the blood of all, to fatten off the 
life of others. Did any one ever see a Jew working with 
his ten fingers? Are there any Jewish peasants and work- 
ingmen ? No, labor disgraces, their religion almost for- 
bids it, exalting only the exploitations of the labor of 
another. Ah ! the rascals ! Saccard seemed seized with 
a rage which was all the greater because he admired them, 
because he envied their prodigious financial faculties, that 
innate knowledge of figures, that natural facility shown 
in the most complicated operations, that scent and that 
luck which assure triumph in everything that they under- 
take. At this game of thieves, he said, Christians have 
no force, they always end by drowning; while take a Jew 
who does not even understand book-keeping, throw him 
into the troubled water of some doubtful affair, and he 
will save himself and bring out all the profit on his back. 
It is the gift of the race, its raison d'être through the 
nationalities that are made and unmade. And he passion- 


94 


MONEY. 


ately prophesied the final conquest of all nations by the 
Jews, when they shall have monopolized the entire for- 
tune of the globe, which they would not be long in doing, 
since they were allowed every day to extend their king- 
dom freely, and one could already see in Paris a Gunder- 
mann reigning on a throne more solid and more respected 
than the emperor’s. 

Above, as he was on the point of entering the vast ante- 
room, Saccard felt an inclination to turn back, seeing it 
so full of remisiers , solicitors, men, women, a tumultuous, 
swarming crowd. The remisiers especially were strug- 
gling for first place, in the improbable hope of taking 
away an order; for the great banker had his own brokers ; 
but it was an honor, a recommendation even to be re- 
ceived, and each of them wished to be able to boast of it. 
Accordingly the waiting was never long, the two attend- 
ants serving for little more than to organize the proces- 
sion, a continuous procession, a real gallop through the 
swinging doors. And, in spite of the crowd, Saccard was 
almost immediately introduced into the flood. 

Gundermann’s office was an immense room, of which he 
occupied only a little corner, at the back, near the last 
window. Seated at a simple mahogany desk, he was so 
placed that the light fell upon his back, his face remain- 
ing completely in the shade. Up at five o’clock, he was 
at work when Paris was still asleep ; and when, toward 
nine o’clock, the jostling of appetites rushed past him at 
a gallop, his day’s work was already done. In the middle 
of the office, at larger desks, two of his sons and one of 
his sons-in-law aided him, rarely sitting down, moving 
about amid the goings and comings of a world of clerks. 
But this was the inner working of the establishment. The 
street crossed the entire room, going to him, the master, 
in his modest corner; while for hours, until breakfast time, 
with an impassible and gloomy air, he received, often 
with a sign, sometimes with a word, if he wished to appear 
particularly amiable. 

As soon as Gundermann saw Saccard, his face lighted 
up with a feeble bantering smile. 

“ Ah ! it is you, my good friend. Be seated a moment, 


MONEY. 


95 


if you have something to say to me. I will be at your 
service directly.” 

Then he pretended to forget him. Saccard, for the 
rest, was not impatient, interested in the procession of 
remisiers , who, crowding at each other’s heels, entered 
with the same profound bow, drew from their irreproach- 
able frock coat the same little card, their stock-list con- 
taining the Bourse quotations, which they presented to 
the banker with the same suppliant and respectful ges- 
ture. There passed ten of them, there passed twenty. 
The banker each time took the list, glanced at it, then 
returned it ; and nothing equalled his patience, except 
his complete indifference, under this hail of offers. 

But Massias appeared, with his gay and anxious air of 
a good dog who has been whipped. They received him 
so badly sometimes that he could have cried. On this 
day, undoubtedly, his humility was exhausted, for he al- 
lowed himself to be unexpectedly forward. 

“ See, Monsieur, Mobilier is very low. How much 
shall I buy for you ? ” 

Gundermann, without taking the list, raised his sea- 
green eyes upon this young man who was so familiar, and 
answered rudely : 

“ Say, my friend, do you think it amuses me to receive 
you ? ” 

“ My God ! Monsieur,” retorted Massias, turning pale, 
“ it amuses me still less to come every morning for noth- 
ing, for three months.” 

“ Then come no more.” 

The remisier bowed and withdrew, after having ex- 
changed with Saccard the furious and distressed glance 
of one suddenly made conscious that he would never 
make his fortune. 

Saccard asked himself, in fact, what interest Gunder- 
mann could have in receiving all these people. Evidently 
he had a special faculty of isolation, he was absorbed, he 
continued to think ; to say nothing of the fact that there 
must be discipline there, some way of proceeding every 
morning to a review of the market, in which he always 
found a profit to make, however small. Very greedily 


9 6 


MONEY. 


he deducted eighty trancs from a conhssier, to whom he 
had given an order the day before, and who robbed him 
somewhere else. Then a dealer in curiosities arrived 
with an enamelled gold box of the last century, an object 
partially restored, a trick which, the banker immediately 
scented. Then there were two ladies, one old with the 
beak of a night-bird, the other young, a very beauti- 
ful brunette, who had a Louis XV. commode to show 
him at their house, which he squarely refused to go to 
see. Then came a jeweller with rubies, two inventors, 
English, Germans, Italians, all tongues, all sexes. And 
the procession of remisiers continued just the same, cut- 
ting the other visits, prolonging itself forever, with the 
reproduction of the same gesture, the mechanical presen- 
tation of the list ; while the flood of clerks, as the hour 
for the opening of the Bourse approached, crossed the 
room in greater numbers than ever, bringing despatches, 
coming to ask for signatures. 

But, to crown the tumult, a little boy of five or six, rid- 
ing astride a stick, burst into the office, playing a trum- 
pet ; and after him came two other children, two little 
girls, one three years old, the other eight, who besieged 
their grandfather’s arm-chair, tugged at his arms, and 
hung upon his neck, he quietly submitting, kissing them 
himself with that Jewish passion for the family, for the 
numerous progeny which makes strength and which one 
defends. 

Suddenly he seemed to remember Saccard. 

“ Ah ! my good friend, you will excuse me ; you see 
that I haven’t a minute to myself. You shall explain 
your business to me.” 

And he was beginning to listen to him, when an em- 
ployee, who had introduced a tall blonde gentleman, came 
to speak a name in his ear. He rose promptly, yet 
without haste, and went to confer with the gentleman at 
another window, while one of his sons continued to re- 
ceive the remisiers arid the coulissiers in his stead. 

In spite of his hidden irritation, Saccard was beginning 
to be invaded by a feeling of respect. He had recognized 
the blonde gentleman, the representative of one of the 


MONEY. 


97 


great powers, full of arrogance at the Tuileries, but here 
standing with head slightly inclined, smiling like a 
solicitor. At other times officials high in the administra- 
tion, the emperor’s ministers themselves, were thus re- 
ceived standing in this room as public as a square, filled 
with a noisy troop of children. And here was affirmed 
the universal royalty of this man, who had his ambassa- 
dors in all the courts of the world, consuls in all the 
provinces, agencies in all the cities, and vessels on all the 
seas. He was not a speculator, a captain of adventures, 
manoeuvring with the millions of others, dreaming, like 
Saccard, of heroic combats in which he should be con- 
queror, in which he should win colossal booty for himself, 
thanks to the aid of mercenary gold enlisted under his 
orders; he was, as he said good-naturedly, a simple money 
merchant, of the greatest possible shrewdness and zeal. 
But to establish his power it was essential that he should 
rule the Bourse ; and so with each liquidation there was 
a new battle, in which the victory infallibly remained with 
him by the decisive virtue of big battalions. For a 
moment Saccard, as he watched him, was overwhelmed 
by the thought that all this money which he moved was his, 
that he had it in his cellars, his inexhaustible merchandise, 
in which he trafficked like a shrewd and prudent merchant, 
like an absolute master, obeyed at a glance, wishing to 
hear everything, see everything, do everything himself. 
A billion of one’s own, thus manipulated, is an invincible 
power. 

“ We shall not have a minute, my good friend,” Gun- 
dermann returned to say. “ I am going to breakfast ; 
come with me into the next room. There perhaps they 
will leave us in peace.” 

It was the little dining-room of the mansion, that of 
the morning, in which the entire family was never gath- 
ered. On this day there were only nineteen at table, 
eight of them children. The banker sat in the middle, 
with only a bowl of milk in front of him. 

He remained for a moment with eyes closed, exhausted 
with fatigue, his face very pale and contracted, for he 
suffered from his liver and his kidneys; then, when with 


MONEY. 


98 

his trembling hands he had lifted the bowl to his lips and 
had drunk a swallow, he sighed. 

“ Ah ! I am tired out to-day.” 

“Why do you not rest?” asked Saccard. 

Gundermann turned his astonished eyes upon him, and 
naïvely answered : 

“ But I cannot !” . . 

In fact, he was not allowed even to drink his milk in 
peace, for the reception of the remisiers had begun again, 
the gallop now crossing the dining-room, while the mem- 
bers^of the family, the men and women, accustomed to 
this bustle, laughed and ate heartily of cold meats and 
pastries, and the children, excited by two fingers of pure 
wine, raised a deafening din. 

And Saccard, who was still watching him, marvelled to 
see him swallow his milk by slow mouthfuls, with such 
an effort that it seemed as if he would never reach the 
bottom of the bowl. He had been put on a milk diet ; he 
was not allowed to touch a bit of meat or cake. Then of 
what use was his billion? Nor had women ever tempted 
him : for forty years he had remained strictly faithful to 
his wife ; and now his virtue was compulsory, irrevocably 
definitive. Why then rise at five o’clock, follow this 
abominable trade, crush one’s self with this immense 
fatigue, lead a galley-slave’s life which no beggar would 
have accepted, with memory crammed with figures and 
skull bursting with a world of cares? Why this useless 
gold added to so much gold, when one cannot buy and 
eat in the street a pound of cherries, escort a passing girl 
to a garden by the water’s edge, enjoy all that is for sale, 
idleness and liberty? And Saccard, who, in his terrible 
appetites, made allowance nevertheless for the disinter- 
ested love of money simply for the power that it gives, 
felt himself seized with a sort of holy terror as he looked 
upon this face, not of the classical miser who hoards, but 
of the impeccable workman, without need of flesh, become 
abstract, so to speak, in his miserable old age, who con- 
tinued obstinately to build his tower of millions, with the 
sole dream of bequeathing it to his own that they might 
raise it higher, until it should dominate the earth, 


MONEY. 


99 


Finally Gundermann leaned over and had him explain 
in an undertone the projected establishment of the Uni- 
versal Bank. However, Saccard was sparing of details, 
simply alluding to the projects in Hamelin’s portfolio, 
having felt from the first words that the banker was try- 
ing to confess him, resolved in advance to refuse him 
afterward. 

“ Another bank, my good friend, another bank!” he 
repeated, in his bantering way. “ But an affair into which 
I would sooner put my money would be a machine, yes, 
a guillotine, to cut off the heads of all the banks already 
established. ... A rake, hey ? to clean out the Bourse. 
Your engineer hasn’t something of that sort among his 
papers ? ” 

Then, assuming a paternal air, he continued with tran- 
quil cruelty : 

“ Come, be reasonable, you know what I told you. 
You are wrong to go into business again ; I render you a 
real service in refusing to launch your syndicate. Inevi- 
tably you will tumble, it is mathematically certain ; for you 
are much too enthusiastic, you have too much imagina- 
tion ; besides, it always ends badly when one deals in 
others’ money. Why doesn’t your brother find you a 
good place, hey ? a prefecture, or else a receivership ; not 
a receivership, that also is too dangerous. Beware, my 
good friend, beware.” 

Saccard had risen, trembling. 

“ You have made up your mind, then ; you will take no 
stock ; you will not be with us ? ” 

“ With you ? Never in my life ! You will be eaten up 
inside of three years.” 

There was a silence, thick with battles, a piercing ex- 
change of defiant looks. 

“ Then, good afternoon. ... I have not breakfasted 
yet and am very hungry. We shall see who will be 
eaten.” 

And he left him in the midst of his tribe as they fin- 
ished noisily stuffing themselves with pastries, receiving 
the last belated brokers, now and then closing his eyes 


100 


MONEY. 


from weariness, while he drained his bowl with little sips, 
his lips all white with milk. 

Saccard threw himself into his cab, giving the address, 
Rue Saint-Lazare. One o’clock struck, it was a day lost ; 
he started home to breakfast, beside himself. Ah ! the 
dirty Jew! here was one, decidedly, whom he would have 
taken pleasure in crunching with his teeth, as a dog 
crunches a bone ! Certainly he was a terrible morsel, too 
big to eat. But could one ever tell? The greatest em- 
pires had crumbled, there is always a time when the pow- 
erful succumb. No, not to eat him, to cut into him first, 
to tear from him shreds of his billion; then to eat him, 
yes ! why not ? to destroy, in the person of their undis- 
puted king, these Jews who thought themselves the mas- 
ters of the feast ! And these reflections, this wrath which 
he carried away from Gundermann’s, filled Saccard with 
a furious zeal, with an imperative desire for traffic, for im- 
mediate success: he would have liked to build with one 
gesture his banking-house, to put it in operation, to tri- 
umph, to crush the rival houses. Suddenly the thought 
of Daigremont came back to him; and, without discussing, 
with an irresistible impulse, he leaned forward and cried 
to the driver to ascend the Rue Larochefoucauld. If he 
wanted to see Daigremont, he must hasten, postponing 
breakfast till later, for he knew that it was Daigremont’s 
habit to go out about one o’clock. Undoubtedly this 
Christian was worth two Jews, and he passed for an ogre 
who devoured young enterprises intrusted to his care. 
But at that minute Saccard would have negotiated with 
Cartouche for conquest, even on condition of dividing. 
The future would decide which of the two was the 
stronger. 

Meanwhile the cab, which ascended the steep hill 
with difficulty, stopped in front of the high monumental 
door of one of the last grand mansions of this neighbor- 
hood, which has had some very fine ones. The detached 
buildings, at the back of a vast paved courtyard, had an 
air of royal grandeur ; and the garden beyond, in which 
centenarian trees were still growing, remained a veritable 
park, isolated from the populous streets. All Paris knew 


MONEY. 


ÏOI 


this mansion for its splendid entertainments, especially 
for the admirable collection of pictures, which not a 
grand duke on his travels failed to visit. Married to a 
woman famous for her beauty, like his pictures, and who 
was heralded in society by brilliant successes as a singer, 
the master of the house led a princely life, was as re- 
nowned for his racing stable as for his gallery, belonged 
to one of the principal clubs, paraded the most costly 
women, and had a box at the. Opera, a chair at the Hôtel 
Drouot, and a little bench at the questionable resorts 
most in vogue. And all this extensive life, this luxury 
flaming in an apotheosis of caprice and art, was paid for 
entirely by speculation, a fortune incessantly moving, 
which seemed infinite like the sea, but which had its ebb 
and flow, balances of two and three hundred thousand 
francs at each fortnightly settlement. 

When Saccard had climbed the majestic stairway, a 
valet announced him, escorting him through three rooms 
filled with marvels to a little smoking-room where Dai- 
gremont was finishing a cigar, before going out. Already 
forty-five years old, the latter was struggling against 
stoutness, of high stature, very elegant, with hair care- 
fully trimmed, and wearing only a moustache and im- 
perial, like a fanatic of the Tuileries. He affected great 
amiability, having absolute confidence in himself, certain 
of conquering. 

He became at once effusive. 

“Ah! my dear friend, what have you been doing with 
yourself ? Only the other day I was thinking of you. 
But are you not my neighbor? ” 

He calmed himself, however, and abandoned this effu- 
sion which he kept for the common herd, when Saccard, 
deeming it useless to beat about the bush, immediately 
broached the object of his visit, telling of his great en- 
terprise and explaining that, before establishing the Uni- 
versal Bank with a capital of twenty-five millions, he was 
trying to form a syndicate of friends, bankers, and man- 
ufacturers, which would insure in advance the success of 
the issue by agreeing to take four-fifths of it, or at least 
forty thousand shares. Daigremont had become very 


Î02 


MONEY 


serious, listened to him, watched him, as if searching to 
the depths of his brain, to see what effort, what labor use- 
ful to himself, he could still get out of this man whom he 
had known so active, so full of marvellous qualities, in 
his blundering fever. At first he hesitated. 

“ No, no, I am overwhelmed; I do not wish to under- 
take anything new.” 

Then, tempted nevertheless, he asked questions, de- 
sired to know the projects which the new house of credit 
would patronize, projects of which Saccard was prudent 
enough to speak only with the extremest reserve. And, 
when he was informed of the first enterprise to be 
launched, this idea of syndicating all the transportation 
companies of the Mediterranean under the name of Gen- 
eral Company of United Steamers, he seemed very much 
struck and suddenly yielded. 

“ Well, I consent to go in. But on one condition. 
How do you stand with your brother, the cabinet minis- 
ter ? ” 

Saccard, surprised, had the frankness to show his bit- 
terness. 

“ With my brother ? Oh ! he does his business, and I 
do mine. He hasn’t a very fraternal sentiment, my 
brother.” 

“ Then so much the worse ! ” declared Daigremont 
squarely. “ I will not join you unless your brother joins 
too. You understand of course, I mean no offence.” 

With an angry gesture of impatience Saccard protested. 
What need had they of Rougon ? Must they go in search 
of chains to bind themselves hand and foot ? But at the 
same time a voice of prudence, stronger than his irrita- 
tion, told him that it was necessary at least to assure 
themselves of the great man’s neutrality. Nevertheless 
he brutally refused. 

“No, no, he has always been too hoggish with me. 
Never will I take the first step.” 

“ Listen,” replied Daigremont, “I expect Huret at five 
o’clock in regard to a commission which he has taken 
upon himself. You will hurry off to the Chamber of 
Deputies, take Huret into a corner, he will at once speak 


MONEY. 


Î03 

of the matter to Rougon, he will find out what the latter 
thinks of it, and we shall have the answer here at five 
o’clock. What do you say, then ; a rendezvous at five 
o’clock?” 

With head lowered, Saccard reflected. 

“ My God ! if you insist upon it ! ” 

“ Oh ! absolutely! without Rougon, nothing; with 
Rougon, anything you like.” 

“ All right, I will go.” 

He had shaken hands vigorously and started off, when 
the other called him back. 

“ Ah ! say, if you feel that things are promising, call, 
on your way back, upon the Marquis de Bohain and Sé- 
dille, tell them that I am going in, and ask them to do 
so. I want them with us.” 

At the door Saccard found his cab again, which he had 
kept, although he had only to go down to the end of the 
street to be at home. He dismissed it, thinking that he 
could have his own horse harnessed in the afternoon ; and 
he hurried back to breakfast. They had given him up ; 
the cook hersélf served him a bit of cold meat, which he 
devoured while quarrelling with the coachman ; for, the 
latter, whom he had summoned, having reported concern- 
ing the visit of the veterinary surgeon, it appeared that 
the horse must be allowed to rest three or four days. 
And, with mouth full, he accused the coachman of neg- 
lect and threatened him with Madame Caroline, who 
would see to all this. Finally he shouted to him to go 
for a cab at least. Again a diluvian shower swept the 
street ; he had to wait more than a quarter of an hour 
for a carriage, into which he stepped, under torrents of 
water, hurling at the driver the address : 

“ To the Chamber of Deputies ! ” 

It was his intention to arrive before the session, that 
he might take Huret into the lobby and interview him 
quietly. Unfortunately an exciting debate was feared 
that day, for a member of the Left was to bring up the 
eternal question of Mexico; and Rougon undoubtedly 
would be obliged to reply. 

As Saccard entered the Salle des Pas-Perdus, he had 


104 


MONEY. 


the luck to meet the deputy. He led him to the rear of 
one of the little reception-rooms near by ; there they 
found themselves alone, thanks to the great sensation 
that prevailed in the lobbies. The opposition was grow- 
ing more and more formidable, the wind of catastrophe 
was beginning to blow which was destined to increase 
and sweep everything away. Consequently Huret, pre- 
occupied, did not understand at first, and it was necessary 
to explain to him three times over the mission desired of 
him. His fright increased. 

“ Oh, my dear friend, what are you thinking of ? Speak 
to Rougon at such a moment ! He will send me further, 
you may be sure.” 

Then the anxiety of his personal interest was revealed. 
His existence depended on the great man, to whom he 
owed his official candidacy, his election, his situation as 
a domestic ready for anything, living on the crumbs of 
the master’s favor. By following this trade for two years, 
thanks to perquisites and prudent profits picked up under 
the table, he had increased his vast Calvados estates, 
intending to retire and enthrone himself there after the 
crash. His gross face of a cunning peasant darkened, and 
expressed the embarrassment which he felt at this request 
for intervention without giving him time to consider 
whether he would gain or lose thereby. 

“ No, no ! I cannot. I told you your brother’s will ; I 
cannot disturb him again. The devil ! think of me a 
little. He is scarcely gentle, when one bothers him ; and 
then, I have no desire to pay for you, to the damage of 
my own credit.” 

Then Saccard, understanding, devoted himself entirely 
to convincing him of the millions that he would gain by 
the launching of the U niversal Bank. With broad strokes, 
with his glowing words that transformed an affair of 
money into a poet’s tale, he explained the superb enter- 
prises, the certain and colossal success. Daigremont, 
enthusiastic, placed himself at the head of the syndicate. 
Bohain and Sédille had already asked to be let in. It 
was impossible that he, Huret, should not be one of them : 
these gentlemen absolutely wanted him with them be- 


MONEY. 


105 


cause of his high political situation. They even hoped 
that he would consent to be a member of the board of 
directors, because his name stood for order and probity. 

At this promise that he should be made a member of 
the board, the deputy looked him squarely in the face. 

“ Well, what is it that you want of me, what reply do 
you wish me to get from Rougon ? ” 

“ My God ! ” replied Saccard, “ I would willingly have 
dispensed with my brother. But Daigremont insists on 
a reconciliation. Perhaps he is right. So I think that 
you had better simply speak of our affair to the terrible 
man, and obtain, if not his aid, at least his agreement not 
to oppose us.” 

Huret, with eyes half closed, was still undecided. 

“ See, if you will only bring an amiable word, just an 
amiable word, do you understand ? Daigremont will be 
satisfied, and we will settle the matter this afternoon be- 
tween us three.” 

“ Well, I will try,” declared the deputy suddenly, affect- 
ing a peasant’s bluntness ; “ but it must be on your ac- 
count, for he is not agreeable, oh ! no, especially when the 
Left is tormenting him. At five o’clock ! ” 

“ At five o’clock ! ” 

Saccard remained nearly an hour longer, made very 
anxious by the current rumors of struggle. He heard one 
of the great orators of the opposition announce that he 
would take the floor. At this news he felt a desire for 
a moment to find Huret again and ask him if it would 
not be prudent to postpone the interview with Rougon 
until the next day. Then, fatalist that he was, believing in 
chance, he trembled lest he might compromise everything 
if he should alter the course determined upon. Perhaps, 
in the jostle, his brother would more readily drop the 
desired word. And, to let things take their course, he 
started off and stepped into his cab again, which was 
already on the Pont de la Concorde when he recollected 
the desire expressed by Daigremont. 

“ Driver, Rue de Babylone.” 

It was in the Rue de Babylone that the Marquis de 
Bohain lived. He occupied the former dependencies of 


MONÉV. 


10 6 

a grand mansion, „a pavilion which had sheltered the stable 
employees and which had been made into a very com- 
fortable modern house. The establishment was luxurious, 
with a beautiful air of coquettish aristocracy. His wife, 
however, was never to be seen, suffering, he said, and 
kept in her apartment by infirmities. Nevertheless the 
house and furniture were hers; he lived with her only as 
a lodger, having nothing of his own but his personal 
effects, a trunk which he could have carried away on a 
cab, kept separate from the estate since he lived by specu- 
lation. In two catastrophes already he had squarely re- 
fused to pay his balances, and the assignees, after having 
looked into the situation, had not even taken the trouble 
to send him stamped paper. They simply made a pass 
of the sponge. He pocketed as long as he won. Then, 
as soon as he lost, he did not pay : they knew it, and they 
were resigned. He bore an illustrious name, he was ex- 
tremely ornamental on boards of directors; consequently 
young corporations, in search of gilded signs, disputed 
with each other for him ; there never was a time when he 
was not in demand. At the Bourse he had his chair, on 
the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Victoires side, the side of the 
richer speculators, who pretended to take no interest in 
the little rumors of the day. They respected him and 
frequently consulted him. Often he had influenced the 
market. In short, a character in himself. 

Saccard, who knew him well, was nevertheless greatly 
impressed by the loftily polite reception of this handsome 
old man of sixty years, with a very small head set upon 
the body of a colossus, and a pale face framed in a brown 
wig, giving him a very grand air. 

“ Monsieur Marquis, I come as a veritable solicitor.” 

He explained the motive of his visit, at first without 
entering into details. Moreover, at his first words the 
Marquis stopped him. 

“ No, no, all my time is taken. I have at this moment 
ten propositions which I must refuse.” 

Then, as Saccard, smiling, added : 

“ Daigremont sent me ; he thought of you,” 

He at once cried : 


money. ïo; 

“Ah! Daigremont is in it. Indeed! indeed! if Dai- 
gremont is with you, so am I. Count on me.” 

And the visitor having then wished to furnish him at 
least some information, in order that he might know in 
what sort of an undertaking he was joining, he closed his 
mouth, with the amiable unconstraint of a great lord who 
does not descend to these details, and who has a natural 
confidence in the probity of people. 

“ I beg of you, not a word more. I do not wish to 
know. You need my name, I lend it to you, and I am 
very glad to do so ; that is all. Simply tell Daigremont 
to arrange the matter to his liking.” 

On stepping into his cab again, Saccard, cheered, 
laughed inwardly. 

“ He will cost us dear,” he thought, “ but he is really a 
great addition.” 

Then he added aloud: 

“Driver, Rue des Jeûneurs.” 

There the Sédille establishment had its ware-houses and 
offices, occupying a vast ground-floor at the rear of a 
court-yard. After twenty-five years of labor, Sédille, who 
was from Lyons and had kept his factories there, had just 
succeeded in making his wholesale silk business one of the 
best known and solidest in Paris, when the passion for 
gambling, in consequence of a lucky hit, had declared and 
propagated itself within him with the destructive violence 
of a fire. Two profitable strokes, one after the other, had 
infatuated him. What was the use of giving twenty-five 
years of one’s life to make a paltry million, when in a sin- 
gle hour, by a simple transaction at the Bourse, one can 
put the same amount in his pocket? From that time he 
gradually lost his interest in his establishment, which 
moved on by sheer inertia ; he lived only in the hope of 
a triumphant stroke of speculation ; and, having struck a 
persistent vein of ill-luck, he thus sank all the profits of 
his business. The worst of this fever is that one becomes 
disgusted with legitimate gains, and finally even loses an 
exact idea of money. And ruin lay inevitably at the end, 
since the Lyons factories brought him only two hundred 


ro8 


MONEY. 


thousand francs, while speculation swept away three hun- 
dred thousand. 

Saccard found Sédille agitated and anxious, for the 
latter was a gambler without phlegm and without philos- 
ophy. He lived in remorse, always hoping, always de- 
jected, sick with uncertainty, and that because he was still 
honest at bottom. The liquidation at the end of April 
had just been disastrous to him. However, his fat face, 
with its thick blonde side-whiskers, flushed at the first 
words. 

“ Ah ! my dear sir, if it is luck that you bring me, you 
are welcome ! ” 

Then he was seized with a fit of terror. 

“ No, no ! do not tempt me. I should do better to shut 
myself up with my pieces of silk and never stir from my 
counter.” 

Wishing to allow him to calm himself, Saccard spoke 
to him of his son Gustave, whom he said he had seen 
that morning at Mazaud s. But to the merchant this was 
another subject of chagrin, for he had dreamed of trans- 
ferring his establishment to this son’s shoulders, and the 
latter despised commerce, a soul of joy and festivity, 
having the white teeth of a parvenu’s son, fit only to de- 
vour fortunes already made. His father had placed him 
with Mazaud to see if he would bite at questions of 
finance. 

Since the death of his poor mother,” he murmured, 
“ he ha s given me very little satisfaction. But perhaps 
he will learn in the broker’s office things that will be use- 
ful to me.” 

“ Well,” resumed Saccard, abruptly, “are you with us? 
Daigremont told me to come and say to you that he was 
going in.” 

Sédille raised his trembling arms to heaven, and, with a 
voice indicative of desire and fear, replied : 

“ Why yes, I am with you. You know very well that I 
cannot do otherwise than go with you Î If I should re- 
fuse and your enterprise should prosper, I should be sick 
with regret. Tell Daigremont that I will go in.” 

When Saccard found himself in the street again he 


MONEY. 


IO9 


took out his watch and saw that it was hardly four o’clock. 
The time that he had before him and the desire that he 
felt to walk a little caused him to dismiss his cab. He 
repented of it almost immediately, for he had not reached 
the boulevard when a fresh shower, a deluge mingled 
with hail, again forced him to take refuge in a doorway. 
What frightful weather, when one had to tramp the streets 
of Paris ! After having watched the water fall for a 
quarter of an hour, he was seized with impatience, and 
hailed an empty carriage which was passing. It was- a 
victoria, and in vain did he tuck the leather apron about 
his' legs, he was drenched when he. reached the Rue 
Larochefoucauld, and early by a good half-hour. 

In the smoking-room where the valet left him, saying 
that Monsieur had not yet returned, Saccard walked about 
with short steps, looking at the pictures. But the superb 
voice of a woman, a contralto of deep and melancholy 
power, having broken the silence of the mansion, he ap- 
proached the open window to listen : it was Madame re- 
hearsing at the piano a piece which she was doubtless to 
sing that evening in some salon . Then, lulled by this 
music, he began to dream of the extraordinary stories 
that had been told him of Daigremont : the story of the 
Hadamantine especially, that loan of fifty millions, the 
entire stock of which he had kept in hand, having it sold 
and re-sold five times by his own brokers, until he had 
created a market, established a price ; then the serious sale, 
the inevitable tumble from three hundred francs to fifteen 
francs, the enormous profits made out of a little world of 
simpletons, ruined by the stroke. Ah ! he was strong, a 
terrible Monsieur! Madame’s voice continued, exhaling 
a plaint of tenderness, distracted, tragic in its fulness ; 
while Saccard, coming back to the middle of the room, 
had stopped before a Meissonier, which he estimated at 
a hundred thousand francs. 

But some one entered, and he was surprised to recognize 
Hu ret. 

“ What ! you are here already ? It is not yet five 
o’clock. Is the session finished, then?” 

“ Oh, yes, finished ! They are squabbling.” 


no 


MONEY. 


And he explained that, as the deputy of the opposition 
was still speaking, Rougon certainly could not answer 
until the next day. Then, when he had seen that, he had 
ventured to confront the minister, during a short recess, 
between two doors. 

“Well,” asked Saccard, nervously, “ what did my illus- 
trious brother say?” 

Huret did not answer immediately. 

“ Oh ! he was as surly as a bear. I confess to you that 
I expected the exasperation in which I found him, hoping 
that he would simply tell me to be off. Then I made 
known to him your affair, and said that you did not wish 
to undertake anything without his approval.” 

“ And then ? ” 

“ Then he seized me by both arms, and shook me, 
shouting in my face : ‘ Let him go hang himself ! ’ and 
there he planted me.” 

Saccard, who had turned pale, gave a forced laugh. 

“ That is pleasant.” 

“ Why, yes, that is pleasant,” answered the deputy, in 
a tone of conviction. “ I did not ask for so much. With 
that we can go ahead.” 

And as he heard in the next room the step of Daigre- 
mont returning, he added, in a low voice : 

“ Let me tell him.” 

Evidently Huret had the greatest desire to see the Uni- 
versal Bank established, and to be connected with it. 
Undoubtedly he had already considered the rôle that he 
could play. Consequently, as soon as he had shaken 
hands with Daigremont, his face assumed a radiant ex- 
pression, and he waved one arm in the air. 

“ Victory ! ” he shouted, “ victory ! ” 

“Ah! really. Tell me about it.” 

“ My God ! the great man did as he was bound to do. 
He answered me : ‘ Let my brother succeed ! ’ ” 

Daigremont almost swooned, finding the phrase charm- 
ing. “Let him succeed!” that contained everything; 
let him not be so stupid as not to succeed, or I will drop 
him ; but let him succeed, and I will aid him. Exquisite, 
in truth! 


MONEY. 


Ill 


“ And, my dear Saccard, we shall succeed, rest easy. 
We are going to do everything that is necessary to that 
end.” 

Then, as the three men had sat down, in order to de- 
cide upon the principal points, Daigremont rose and went 
to close the window ; for Madame’s voice, gradually swell- 
ing, was giving forth a sob of infinite despair, which pre- 
vented them from hearing each other. And even with 
the window closed, the stifled lamentation accompanied 
them,- while they decided upon the creation of a house of 
credit, the Universal Bank, with a capital of twenty-five 
millions, divided into fifty thousand shares of five hun- 
dred francs each. It was further agreed that Daigre- 
mont, Huret, Sédille, the Marquis de Bohain, and a few 
of their friends, should form a syndicate to take four- 
fifths of the stock, or forty thousand shares, in advance, 
and divide it among themselves, so that the success of 
the issue was assured, and that later, by withholding the 
shares and creating a scarcity in the market, they could 
send the price up at will. Only, everything came near 
breaking when Daigremont demanded a premium of four 
hundred thousand francs, to be assessed on the forty 
thousand shares, at the rate of ten francs a share. Sac- 
card protested, declaring that it was not reasonable to 
make the cow moan before milking her. The beginnings 
would be difficult ; why embarrass the situation further ? 
Nevertheless he had to yield, in view of the attitude of 
Huret, who tranquilly looked upon the thing as very 
natural, saying that it was always done. 

They were separating, having agreed upon a rendez- 
vous for the next day, a rendezvous at which the en- 
gineer Hamelin was to be present, when Daigremont 
suddenly struck his forehead with an air of despair. 

“ And Kolb, whom I was forgetting ! Oh ! he never 
would forgive me ; he must be one of us. My little Sac- 
card, if you were accommodating, you would go to his 
place directly. It is not six o’clock, you will still find 
him there. Yes, yourself, and not to-morrow, but to- 
night, because that will have an effect on him and he may 
be useful to us.” 


MONEY. 


1 12 

With docility Saccard started off again, knowing that 
lucky days do not begin a second time. But he had 
again dismissed his cab, hoping to go home, a distance of 
a few steps ; and, as the rain seemed to have stopped at 
last, he descended the hill on foot, happy to feel under 
his heels these pavements of Paris, which he was recon- 
quering. In the Rue Montmartre a few drops of water 
made him take to the passages. He passed through the 
Passage Verdeau, the Passage Jouffroy ; then, in the Pas- 
sage des Panorames, as he was following a lateral gallery, 
to reach the Rue Vivienne by a short cut, he was sur- 
prised to see Gustave Sédille come out of an obscure 
alley and disappear without turning round. He had 
stopped to look at the house, an unobtrusive furnished 
hotel, when, in a little blonde woman, veiled, who came 
out in her turn, he recognized positively Madame Conin, 
the stationer’s pretty wife. This, then, was the place to 
which, when in an affectionate mood, she brought her 
lovers of a day, while her fat, good-natured husband sup- 
posed that she was out collecting bills ! This mysterious 
corner, in the very middle of the district, was very prettily 
chosen, and chance alone had just revealed the secret. 
Saccard smiled, very much amused, envying Gustave : 
Germaine Cœur in the morning, Madame Conin in the 
afternoon, he took double rations, the young man ! And 
twice he turned back to look again at the door, that he 
might be able to recognize it later, tempted in the same 
direction himself. 

In the Rue Vivienne, at the moment when he was en- 
tering Kolb’s, Saccard trembled and stopped again. A 
light, crystalline music, which came out of the ground, 
like the voices of legendary fairies, enveloped him ; and 
he recognized the music of gold, the continual jingle of 
this neighborhood of negotiation and speculation, which 
he had already heard in the morning. The end of the 
day joined itself to the beginning. He brightened at the 
caress of this voice, as if it confirmed the good omen. 

Kolb happened to be down-stairs in the casting-shop ; 
and, as a friend of the house, Saccard went down to find 
him. In the bare cellar eternally lighted by large gas- 


MONEY. 


*13 

jets, the two founders were emptying by the shovelful 
the zinc-lined boxes, filled that day with Spanish coins, 
which they threw into the melting-pot on the great square 
furnace. The heat was intense; they had to speak loud 
to be heard amid this musical jingle, vibrating under the 
low ceiling. Cast ingots, golden paving-stones, with the 
glittering brilliancy of new metal, stood in rows upon the 
table of the assayer, who determined the standard. And 
since morning more than six millions had passed there, 
assuring the banker a profit of scarcely three or four hun- 
dred francs ; for the traffic in gold, the difference realized 
between two quotations being of the smallest and meas- 
ured by thousandths, can yield a profit only when the 
metal is cast in large quantities. Hence this tinkling of 
goljd, this streaming of gold, from morning till night, from 
yearH* end to year’s end, in the depths of this cellar, to 
which the gold came in coins, from which it went away 
in ingots, to come back again in coins and go away again 
in ingots perhaps, indefinitely, with the sole object of 
leaving in the trader’s hands a few particles of gold. 

As soon as Kolb, a short and very dark man, whose 
nose, shaped like an eagle’s beak, and emerging from a 
thick beard, declared his Jewish origin, had comprehended 
Saccard’s offer, which the gold covered with a sound of 
hail, he accepted. 

“ Perfect ! ” he cried. “ Very glad to be in it, if Daigre- 
mont is in it ! And thank you for having gone out of 
your way ! ” 

But they scarcely heard each other; they were silent, 
remained there a moment longer, dazed by this clear and 
exasperated jingling, which made their flesh quiver, as 
when one hears a too high note held endlessly upon the 
violins, to the point of spasm. 

Outside, in spite of the fine weather which had re- 
turned, a clear May evening, Saccard, worn out with 
fatigue, took a cab again to go home. A hard, but well- 
filled day. 


IV. 


Difficulties arose, the affair dragged along, five 
months rolled away without any conclusion. They were 
already in the latter days of September, and it enraged 
Saccard to see, in spite of his zeal, fresh obstacles contin- 
ually arising, a whole series of secondary questions, which 
it was necessary to solve first, if they wished to establish 
anything serious and solid. His impatience became such 
that at one moment he was on the point of abandoning 
the idea of a syndicate, haunted and seduced by the sud- 
den thought of carrying out the affair with the Princess 
d’Orviedo, all alone. She had the millions necessary for 
the first launching ; why should she not put them into 
this superb operation, leaving the smaller investors to 
come later, at the time of the future additions to the 
capital stock, which he had already in view ? His good 
faith was absolute ; he was convinced that he was offering 
her an investment in which she could multiply her fortune 
by ten, this fortune of the poor, which she was scattering 
in charities ever more extensively. 

So one morning Saccard went up to the rooms of the 
Princess, and, in the double capacity of a friend and a 
man of business, he explained to her the motive and the 
mechanism of the bank of which he dreamed. He told 
her everything, spread before her the contents of Hame- 
lin’s portfolio, did not omit one of the Oriental enterprises. 
Yielding to the faculty which he had of becoming intoxi- 
cated by his own enthusiasm and of arriving at faith by 
his burning desire to succeed, he even revealed the mad 
dream of the Papacy at Jerusalem, he spoke of the defini- 
tive triumph of Catholicism, the Pope enthroning himself 
in the Holy Land, dominating the world, assured of a 
royal budget, thanks to the creation of the Treasury of 


MONEY. 


“5 

the Holy Sepulchre. The Princess, an ardent devotee, 
was but little struck until the revelation of this supreme 
project, this crowning of the edifice, the chimerical gran- 
deur of which pleased that lawless imagination which 
caused her to throw away her millions in good works of 
colossal and useless luxury. The French Catholics had 
just been cast down and irritated by the treaty which the 
emperor had concluded with the king of Italy, by which 
he pledged himself, under certain conditions of guarantee, 
to withdraw the French troops from Rome ; it was very 
certain that this meant the abandonment of Rome to 
Italy; they already saw the Pope driven out, reduced to 
alms, wandering through the cities with a beggar’s staff ; 
and what a prodigious climax, the Pope again finding 
himself pontiff and king at Jerusalem, installed and sus- 
tained by a bank in which the Christians of the entire 
world would regard it an honor to be stockholders ! This 
was so beautiful that the Princess declared the idea the 
grandest of the century, worthy to incite the enthusiasm 
of any well-born person having religion. Success seemed 
to her certain and crushing. Her esteem for the engineer 
Hamelin, whom she treated with consideration, knowing 
him to be a constant communicant, increased. But she 
squarely refused to go into the affair ; she intended to 
remain faithful to her oath to restore her millions to the 
poor, without ever getting from them a centime of inter- 
est, wishing this gambling money to be lost, to be drunk 
up by poverty, like a poisoned water that must disappear. 
The argument that the poor would profit by the specula- 
tion did not touch her; it even irritated her. No, no! 
the accursed source should be dried up ; she had given 
herself no other mission. 

Saccard, disconcerted, could only utilize her sympathy 
to obtain from her an authorization which he had vainly 
solicited before. It had been his idea, as soon as the 
Universal Bank should be established, to locate it in the 
mansion itself ; or at least it was Madame Caroline who 
had suggested to him this idea ; for he saw things on a 
grander scale, and would have liked a palacê straightway. 
They would content themselves with roofing the court- 


ii 6 


MONEY. 


yard with glass to serve as a central hall ; they would 
divide up into offices the entire ground-floor, the stables, 
and the coach-houses ; on the second floor he would give 
his reception-room for the use of the directors, his dining- 
room and six other rooms would be made into additional 
offices, and he would keep only a sleeping-room and a 
dressing-room, free to live up-stairs, with the Hamelins, 
eating and passing his evenings with them ; so that at a 
small expense they would provide the bank with some- 
what limited but very serious quarters. The Princess, as 
proprietor, had at first refused, in her hatred of all money 
traffic : never should her roof shelter this abomination. 
But when she found that religion entered into the matter, 
moved by the grandeur of the purpose, she consented. 
It was an extreme concession, and she felt a little shudder 
pass through her at the thought of this infernal machine 
of a house of credit, of a house of speculation and jobbery, 
whose machinery of ruin and death she thus allowed to 
be set up underneath her. 

Finally, a week after this abortive attempt, Saccard had 
the joy of seeing the affair, so embarrassed by obstacles, 
suddenly concluded in a few days. Daigremont came 
one morning to tell him that he had all the adhesions, 
and that they could go ahead. Then they went over to- 
gether for the last time the proposed by-laws, and drew 
up the act of incorporation. And it was a great time 
too for the Hamelins, whose life was beginning to grow 

hard again. He for years had had but one dream, to 

be the consulting engineer of a great house of credit ; as 
he expressed it, he undertook to bring the water to the 
mill. So little by little Saccard’s fever had gained upon 
k urn ^ n £ with the same zeal and the same impatience. 
Madame Caroline, on the contrary, after her enthusiasm 
at the idea of the beautiful and useful things which they 
were going to accomplish, seemed colder and had a 
dreamy air, now that they were entering into the briars 
and bogs of execution. Her great good sense, her up- 
right nature, scented all sorts of dark and unclean holes • • 
and she trembled especially for her brother, whom she 
adored, and whom she sometimes treated laughingly as 


money. 


n; 

“ stupid ” in spite of his science, not that she suspected 
the least in the world the perfect honesty of their friend, 
whom she saw so demoted to their fortune; but she had 
^singular sensation as if the earth were moving under 
her feet, a fear of falling and being swallowed up at the 
first false step. 

That morning, Saccard, when Daigremont had gom 
ascended to the work-room with a beaming face. 

“At last, it is done ! ” he cried. 

Hamelin, in a transport, with moist eyes, advanced to 
grasp his hands as if he would crush them. And as 
Madame Caroline had simply turned toward him, a little 
pale, he added : 

“ Well, what then, is that all you have to say to me? 
Does this news give you no pleasure ? ” 

Then she smiled pleasantly. 

Why, yes, I am very glad, very glad, I assure you.” 

Then, when he had given her brother the details re- 
garding the syndicate definitely formed, she intervened 
with her peaceful air. 

“ Then it is permissible, is it not ? for several thus to 
meet and divide among themselves a bank’s stock before 
it has been issued ? ” ‘ 

He gave a violent gesture of affirmation. 

“ Why, certainly, it is permissible ! You do not think 
us silly enough to risk a check? To say nothing of the 
fact that, when the beginnings are difficult, we need solid 
people, masters of the market. Now at any rate four- 
fifths of our shares are placed in sure hands. We can 
proceed to sign the act of incorporation at the notary’s.” 

She was daring enough to oppose him. 

“ I thought that the law required the subscription of 
the entire capital.” 

This time, greatly surprised, he looked her in the face. 

“ Then you read the Code ? ” 

And she blushed slightly, for he had guessed correctly : 
the day before, yielding to her uneasiness, this secret fear 
without precise cause, she had read the law regarding 
corporations. For an instant she was on the point of 
lying. Then she confessed with a laugh : 


money. 


îi8 

“ It is true, I read the Code yesterday. I came from 
it examining my own honesty and that of others, as one 
comes from the reading of medical books with all the dis- 
eases.” 

But he took offence, for this fact of having wished to 
inform herself showed that she was distrustful of him, 
ready to watch him, with her woman’s eyes, searching 
and intelligent. 

“ Ah ! ” he replied, with a gesture that struck down 
vain scruples, “ do you suppose that we are going to con- 
form to the trumperies of the Code? But we could not 
take two steps ; we should be met by obstacles at every 
stride, while others, our rivals, would outstrip us at full 
speed. No, no, I certainly shall not wait till all the capi- 
tal is subscribed ; I prefer, moreover, to reserve the shares 
for ourselves, and I shall find a man of our own with 
whom I will open an account and who, in short, will be 
our prête-nom .” * 

“ It is forbidden,” she declared, simply, with her beauti- 
ful serious voice. 

“ Oh, yes, it is forbidden, but all societies do it.” 

“ They are wrong, since it is an evil.” 

Saccard, calming himself by a sudden effort of his will, 
and smiling in his turn, thought best then to turn to 
Hamelin, who, in his embarrassment, was listening with- 
out intervening. 

“ My dear friend, I hope that you do not doubt me. 
I am an old stager of some experience ; you can trust 
yourself in my hands, so far as the financial side of the 
affair is concerned. Bring me good ideas, and I under- 
take to get from them all desirable profit with the least 
possible risk. I believe that a practical man can say 
nothing better.” 

The engineer, with his invincible substratum of timidity 
and weakness, turned the thing into a joke, in order to 
avoid a direct answer. 

“ Oh ! in Caroline you will have a real censor. She is 
a born school-master.” 

* A man who consents to appear as the principal party in an affair in 
which he has really no interest. — Translator . 


MONEY. 1 19 

“ But I am very willing to join her class,” declared Sac- 
card, gallantly. 

Madame Caroline herself had begun to laugh. And 
the conversation continued in a tone of familiar good- 
will. 

“ You see, I love my brother much, and I love you 
yourself more than you think, and it would give me great 
sorrow to see you engage in doubtful transactions with 
nothing but disaster and sadness at the end of them. 
Thus I may say, now that we are upon the matter, that 
I have a great terror of speculation, of gambling at the 
Bourse. I was so glad, therefore, to read, in the eighth 
article of the proposed by-laws which you had me copy, 
that the Society rigorously forbade itself all dealing in 
‘futures.’ That was a prohibition of gambling, was it 
not ? And then you disenchanted me by laughing at me 
and explaining that it was simply an article for show, a 
formula of style which all societies made it a point of 
honor to inscribe in their by-laws but was not observed 
by one of them. Do you know what I would like ? That, 
instead of these shares, these fifty thousand shares which 
you are going to launch, you would issue only bonds. 
Oh ! you see that I am very strong since reading the 
Code ; I am no longer ignorant that they do not gamble 
in bonds, that a bondholder is a simple lender who re- 
ceives such a per cent, for his loan without being inter- 
ested in the profits, whereas the stockholder is an asso- 
ciate running the risk of profit and loss. Say, why not 
bonds? That would so reassure me; I should be so 
happy !” 

She pleasantly exaggerated the supplicating tone of 
her request in order to hide her real anxiety. And Sac- 
card answered it in the same tone, with a comical out- 
burst. 

« Bonds, bonds ! Why, never ! What would you have 
us do with bonds? They are so much dead matter. 
You must understand that speculation, gambling, is the 
central mechanism, the heart itself, in a vast affair like 
ours. Yes, it summons the blood, it takes it from every- 
where in little streams, masses it, sends it back in rivers 


120 


MONEY. 


in all direction^sstablishes an enormous circulation of 
money, which is the very life of great enterprises. With- 
out it the great movements of capital and the great civil- 
izing labors that result are radically impossible. It is the 
same as with joint stock companies. Has there not been 
a great outcry against them ? Has it not been said again 
and again that they are dens of gamblers and cut-throats ? 
The truth is that without them we should have neither 
railroads nor any of the enormous modern enterprises 
that have renewed the world ; for no single fortune would 
have sufficed to carry them through, just as no single in- 
dividual, or group of individuals, would have been willing 
to run the risk. The risk, that is the whole of it, and the 
grandeur of the object also. There must be a vast pro- 
ject, the magnitude of which strikes the imagination ; 
there must be the hope of a considerable gain, of some 
lottery stroke that will increase the investment ten-fold 
provided it is not swept away ; and then there is a kind- 
ling of the passions, an affluence of life, each one brings 
his money, you can make the earth over again. What 
evil do you see in that ? The risks incurred are volun- 
tary, spread over an infinite number of persons, unequal 
and limited by the fortune and audacity of each. One 
loses, but one wins ; one hopes for a lucky number, but 
one must always expect to draw a blank ; and humanity 
has no dream more obstinate or more ardent than to 
tempt fortune, to obtain everything from its caprice, to 
be king, to be god ! ” 

Little by little Saccard had dropped his laughing tone, 
and, straightening upon his short legs, he became inflamed 
with a lyric ardor, making gestures that scattered his 
words to the four corners of heaven. 

“See! we, with our Universal Bank, are we not going 
to open a broader horizon, a complete gap in the old 
world of Asia, an unlimited field for the pick-axe of 
progress and the dreams of the gold-hunters? Certainly 
never was ambition more colossal, and, I grant, never 
were the conditions of success and failure more obscure. 
But that is precisely why we are within the very terms of 
the problem, and shall excite, I am convinced, an extra- 


MONEY. 


121 


ordinary infatuation in the public mind ar soon as we are 
known. Our Universal Bank, my God ! it will be in the 
first place the classic house which will transact all bank- 
ing business, credit and discount, receive funds on deposit, 
and contract, negotiate, or issue loans. But the tool that 
I wish especially to make of it is a machine to launch 
your brother’s grand projects : that will be its real rôle , 
there it will find its increasing profits, its gradually domi- 
nating power. It is established, in short, to lend its aid 
to the financial and industrial societies which we shall 
organize in foreign countries, whose stock we shall place, 
and which will owe us life and assure us sovereignty. 
And in view of this blinding future of conquest, you come 
to ask me if it is permissible to syndicate and to give the 
advantage of a premium to the syndicators, to be charged 
to the account of initial expenses ; you disturb yourself 
about the inevitable little irregularities, shares not yet 
subscribed for, which the Society will do well to keep, 
under cover of a prête-nom ; in short, you begin a war 
upon gambling, Lord ! which is the very soul, the hearth- 
stone, the flame, of this mechanical giant of which I 
dream ! Know then that this is nothing yet, all this ! 
that this paltry little capital of twenty-five millions is a 
simple fagot thrown under the machine for kindling ! that 
I hope to double it, quadruple it, quintuple it, as fast as 
our operations enlarge ! that we must have a hail of gold 
pieces, a dance of millions, if we wish to accomplish down 
there the prodigies announced ! Ah ! I am not responsi- 
ble for the breakage ; we do not move the world without 
crushing the feet of a few passers-by.” 

She looked at him, and, in her love of life, of every- 
thing that was strong and active, she finally found him 
beautiful, seductive by his fervor and his faith. Accord- 
ingly, without surrendering to his theories, at which the 
uprightness of her clear intelligence revolted, she pre- 
tended to be vanquished. 

“ All right ! say that I am only a woman and that the 
battles of existence frighten me. Only, try, will you not ? 
to crush as few people as possible, and especially crush 
none of those I love.” 


MONEŸ. 


Ï22 

Saccard, intoxicated by his burst of eloquence and tri- 
umphing with this vast plan exposed as if the work were 
done, became thoroughly good-natured. 

“ Oh ! don’t be afraid ! If I play the ogre, it is for fun. 
Everybody will be rich.” 

Then they talked tranquilly of the arrangements to be 
made, and it was agreed that, the very day after the defi- 
nite constitution of the Society, Hamelin should go to 
Marseilles and thence to the Orient, to hasten the initia- 
tion of the grand enterprises. 

But already, in the Parisian market, reports were 
spreading ; rumor brought up the name of Saccard from 
the troubled depths in which it had been temporarily 
drowned ; and the news, whispered at first, but gradually 
spoken in louder tones, so clearly sounded approaching 
success that again, as at the Parc Monceaux in former days, 
his ante-room was filled with solicitors every morning. 
He saw Mazaud come up, by chance, to shake hands with 
him and talk over the news of the day ; he received other 
brokers, the Jew Jacoby, with his thundering voice, and 
his brother-in-law, Delarocque, a stout sandy-haired man 
who made his wife so unhappy. The coulisse came also in 
the person of Nathansohn, a short, light-complexioned, 
arid very active man borne on the wave of fortune. And 
as for Massias, resigned to his hard task of an unlucky 
remisier , already he appeared every day, though as yet 
there was no order to be received. It was a swelling 
multitude. 

One morning, at nine o’clock, Saccard found the ante- 
room full. Not having yet employed any new people, he 
was very badly aided by his valet de chambre ; and gener- 
ally he took the trouble to usher in the people himself. 
On this day, as he opened the door of his office, Jantrou 
wished to enter ; but he had seen Sabatani, for whom he 
had been searching for two days. 

“ Pardon me, my friend,” said he, stopping the old 
teacher in order to receive the Levantine first. 

Sabatani, with his disturbing and caressing smile and 
his adder-like suppleness, left Saccard to speak, who, very 


MONEY 123 

squarely moreover, as one who knew his man, made his 
proposition. 

“My dear fellow, I have need of you. We want a 
prête-nom. I will open an account with you, I will make 
you the buyer of a certain number of our shares, which 
you will pay for simply in handwriting. You see that I 
come straight to the point and treat you as a friend.” 

The young man looked at him with his handsome 
velvet eyes, so soft in his long dark face. 

“ The law, dear master, formally requires cash payment. 
Oh ! it is not for myself that J tell you that. You treat 
me as a friend, and I am very proud of it. Anything you 
Hke.” 

Then Saccard, to be agreeable to him, told him of the 
esteem in which he was held by Mazaud, who was now 
willing to take his orders without being covered. Then 
he joked him about Germaine Cœur, in whose company 
he had met him the night before.* 

“ Ah ! by the way,” interrupted Saccard, “ we shall also 
need signatures, to give regularity to certain operations, — 
transfers, for instance. Can I send you packages of 
papers to sign ?” 

“ Why, certainly, dear master. Anything you like ! ” 

He did not even raise the question of payment, know- 
ing that, when one renders such services, he does so with- 
out price ; and as the other added that they would give 
him one franc a signature to compensate him for his loss 
of time, he acquiesced with a simple nod of the head. 
Then, with his smile, he said : 

“ I hope too, dear master, that you will not refuse me 
advice. As you are to be so well situated, I shall come 
to you for information.” 

* In consequence of a disgraceful law foisted upon the people of the 
United States by Anthony Comstock and his backers of the Vice Society 
in the interest of a prudish and hypocritical morality, I am forced to omit 
from this picture a short but vigorous stroke of the word-painter’s brush, 
hoping that the time is not far distant when a saner spirit, a healthier mo- 
rality, and, above all, a more fearless regard for the freedom of the press, 
will inspire Americans with a resolve to submit no longer to the enforced 
emasculation of the greatest works of the greatest authors of this time and 
of times past. — Translator. 


124 


MONEY. 


“ That’s right,” concluded Saccard, who understood. 
“ Au revoir , and be careful of yourself ; do not yield too 
readily to the curiosity of the ladies.” 

And, laughing again, he dismissed him by a private 
exit which enabled him to send people away without 
making them pass through the ante-room again. 

Then Saccard, having gone to reopen the other door, 
called Jantrou. At a glance he saw him ravaged, without 
resources, wearing a frock-coat the sleeves of which had 
been worn out on cafe tables while waiting for a situation. 
The Bourse continued to be a step-mother, and yet he 
kept his fine looks and his fan-shaped beard, a cynic and 
a man of letters, still dropping occasionally a flowery 
phrase characteristic of a former university man. 

“ I should have written to you soon,” said Saccard. 
“We are drawing up the list of our employees, upon 
which I have inscribed your name among the first, and I 
expect to call you to the office of issues.” 

Jantrou stopped him with a gesture. 

“ You are very kind, and I thank you. But I have a 
proposal to make to you.” 

He did not explain himself directly, but began by gen- 
eralities, asked what part the newspapers would play in 
the launching of the Universal Bank. The other took 
fire at the first words, declared that he was for advertising 
on the largest scale, and that he would devote to it all 
the money disposable. Not a trumpet was to be dis- 
dained ; not even the two-sou trumpets ; for he laid it 
down as an axiom that every noise was good from the 
simple fact that it was a noise. The ideal would be to 
have all the journals enlisted ; only that would cost too 
much. 

then, your idea to organize our advertising? 
Perhaps that wouldn’t be a bad scheme. We will talk it 
over.” 

. “ Yes > la ter, if you like. But what would you say to a 
journal of your own, completely your own, of which I 
should be the director ? Every morning a page would be 
reserved for you, articles that would sing your praises 
simple notes calling attention to you, allusions in studies 


MONEY. 


125 


entirely foreign to finance, in short, a regular campaign, 
à propos of everything and nothing, incessantly exalting 
you on the hecatomb of your rivals. Does that tempt 
you ?” 

“ Why, if it will not cost the eyes in one’s head.” 

“ No, the price will be reasonable.” 

And at last he named the journal : V Espérance, a sheet 
founded two years before by a little group of Catholic 
notabilities, the violent members of the party, who waged 
ferocious war upon the empire. Their success, however, 
was absolutely null, and every week there was a fresh re- 
port of the disappearance of the journal. 

Saccard cried out in protest. 

“ Oh, it hasn’t two thousand circulation ! ’ 

“ But it will be our business to raise its circulation.” 

“ And besides, it is impossible : it drags my brother in 
the mud, I cannot offend my brother at the start.” 

Jantrou shrugged his shoulders mildly. 

“There is no need of offending any one. You know as 
well as I do that, when a house of credit has a journal, it 
is of little consequence whether it sustains or attacks the 
government : if it is obliging, the house is certain to form 
a part of all the syndicates organized by the minister of 
finance to insure the success of the loans of the State and 
the Communes ; if it is in opposition, the same minister 
has all sorts of regards for the bank which it represents, a 
desire to disarm it and win it over, which often finds ex- 
pression in still more favors. So don’t trouble yourself 
as to the color of /’ Espérance. Have a journal, it is a 
power.” 

Silent for a moment, Saccard, with that alertness of in- 
tellect that enabled him at a stroke to appropriate an- 
other’s idea, examine it, and adapt it to his needs, to the 
point of making it entirely his own, developed a complete 
plan : he would buy V Espérance, would suppress the bit- 
ter polemics, would lay it at the feet of his brother who 
would be obliged to show his gratitude, but would main- 
tain its Catholic odor, keeping it as a menace, a machine 
ever ready for the resumption of its terrible campaign in 
the name of the interests of religion. And, if they were 


126 


MONEY. 


not amiable with him, he would brandish Rome, he would 
risk the grand Jerusalem stroke. It would be a pretty 
turn at the finish. 

“ Should we be free ? ” he asked abruptly. 

“ Absolutely free. They have had enough of it; the 
journal has fallen into the hands of a needy fellow who 
will give it over to us for ten thousand francs. We will 
do what we like with it.” 

Saccard reflected a minute longer. 

“Well, it is done. Make an appointment, and bring 
your man here. You shall be director, and I will see to 
the centralization in your hands of all our advertising, 
which I wish to be exceptional, enormous, oh ! later, when 
we shall have the wherewithal to seriously heat up the 
machine.” 

He had risen. Jantrou also rose, concealing his joy at 
finding bread beneath his braggadocio laugh of a man 
without a sphere, weary of Parisian life. 

“ At last, then, I am about to re-enter my element, my 
dear belles-lettres ! ” 

“ Do not engage anybody yet,” said Saccard, as he es- 
corted him to the door. “ And while I think of it, just 
make a note of a protégé of mine, Paul Jordan, a young 
man in whom I find remarkable talent, and in whom you 
will have an excellent literary editor. I will write him a 
letter and tell him to call upon you.” 

As Jantrou was going out by the private door, this 
happy arrangement of the two outlets struck him. 

“ Why ! this is convenient,” said he, in his familiar way. 
“ One can elude people. When beautiful ladies come, 
like the one I saluted just now in the ante-room, the 
Baroness Sandorff ”. . . 

Saccard did not know that she was there ; and, with a 
shrug of his shoulders, he tried to express his indifference ; 
but the other chuckled, refusing to believe in this disin- 
terestedness. The two men exchanged a vigorous hand- 
shake. 

When he was alone, Saccard instinctively approached 
the mirror and gave an extra curl to his hair, in which 
not a white thread had yet appeared. He had not lied 


MONEY. 


127 


however ; women scarcely entered his thoughts, now that 
business had again taken entire possession of him ; and 
he yielded only to the involuntary gallantry which makes 
it impossible for a Frenchman to find himself alone with 
a woman without fearing that he will be looked upon as 
a blockhead if he does not conquer her. As soon as he 
had ushered in the Baroness, he became very attentive. 

“ Madame, I pray you, be seated.” 

Never had he seen her so strangely seductive, with her 
red lips, her burning eyes, with the bruised eyelids, hidden 
under thick' eyebrows. What could she want of him ? 
And he was much surprised, almost disenchanted, when 
she had explained to him the motive of her visit. 

“ My God ! Monsieur, I beg your pardon for disturbing 
you, and without advantage to yourself ; but between 
people who move in the same circle, it is very necessary 
to render each other these little services. You lately had 
a head cook, whom my husband is on the point of engag- 
ing. I come therefore simply to inquire about him.” 

Then he allowed himself to be questioned, answered 
with the greatest obligingness, at the same time never 
taking his eyes off her ; for he thought he divined that 
this was a pretext : the head cook was a good handle, 
but she evidently came for something else. And, in fact, 
by manoeuvring, she finally referred to a common friend, 
the Marquis de Bohain, who had spoken to her of the 
Universal Bank. It was so difficult to invest one’s money, 
to find solid values ! At last he understood that she 
would willingly take stock, with the premium of ten per 
cent, abandoned to the syndicators ; and he understood 
better still that, if he should open an account with her, 
she would not pay. 

“ I have my personal fortune ; my husband never 
meddles with it. It gives me much worry, but a little 
amusement also, I confess. You know, people are aston- 
ished to see a woman busy herself with money matters, 
especially a young woman, and they are tempted to blame 
her. There are days when I am in mortal embarrassment, 
having no friends who are willing to advise me. Only a 
fortnight ago, for want of proper information, I lost a 


128 


MONEY. 


considerable sum. Ah ! now that you are going to be in 
such a good position to know, if you were obliging 
enough, if you wished ”... 

Through the woman of society the gambler pierced, 
the fierce, ravenous gambler, this daughter of the Ladri- 
courts, one of whose ancestors had taken Antioch, this 
diplomat s wife before whom the foreign colony of Paris 
bent almost double, and whose passion took her to the 
offices of financiers in the attitude of a suspicious solicitor. 
Her lips bled, her eyes flamed more brightly, her desire 
shot forth, stirring the passionate woman that she seemed 
to be. And he was naïve enough to believe that she had 
come to offer herself, simply to get into his great enter- 
prise and to obtain, on occasion, useful “ pointers ” in 
stocks. 

“ But >” he cried, « I ask nothing better, Madame, than 
to lay my experience at your feet.” 

He had drawn his chair nearer, and he took her hand. 
Suddenly she seemed sobered. Ah ! no, she was not yet 
at that point ; there would be always time to pay with a 
night for the communication of a despatch. Her liaison 
with the attorney general, Delcambre, that dry and yellow 
man whom her husband’s stinginess had forced her to 
welcome, was already an abominable bore to her. And 
her sensual indifference, her secret contempt for man, now 
showed itself in a pale and weary expression upon her 
misleadingly passionate face, which the hope of gain alone 
inflamed. She rose, in a revolt of her race and education 
which still unfitted her for business. 

“ Then, Monsieur, you say that you were satisfied with 
your head cook? ” 

Astonished, Saccard rose in turn. What, then, had 
she hoped for ? That he would put her name on the list 
and give her information for nothing? Decidedly one 
should distrust women ; in the market their bad faith was 
notorious. And although he desired her, he did not in- 
sist, bowing with a smile that signified : “ At your ease 
dear Madame, when you like,” while aloud he said • 

“Very well satisfied, I repeat. An alteration of do- 
mestic arrangements alone decided me to part with him ” 


MONEY. 


I29 

The Baroness Sandorff hesitated, though scarcely for a 
second ; not that she regretted her revolt, but undoubt- 
edly she felt how simple it was of her to come to a Sac- 
caid before making up her mind to the consequences. 
This irritated her with herself, for she pretended to be a 
serious woman. Finally she responded with a simple 
inclination of the head to the respectful bow with which 
he dismissed her ; and he was accompanying her to the 
little door, when it was suddenly opened by a familiar 
hand. It was Maxime, who was to breakfast with his 
father that morning, and who came by the inner passage, 
like one at home. He stepped aside, likewise bowing, to 
allow the Baroness to pass. Then, when she had gone, 
he gave a slight laugh. 

“ Your business is beginning, then ? You are receiving 
your premiums ? ” 

Although still very young, he had the assurance of a 
man of experience, incapable of expending himself use- 
lessly in hazardous pleasure. His father understood his 
attitude of ironical superiority. 

“ Not exactly; I have received nothing at all, but not 
through prudence, for, my boy, I am as proud still to be 
twenty as you seem of being sixty.” 

Maxime’s laugh became more pronounced, his old 
pearly laugh of a girl, the ambiguous cooing of which he 
had preserved, in the correct attitude which he had 
adopted of a sedate bachelor, desirous of not spoiling his 
life further. He affected the greatest indulgence, pro- 
vided nothing of his was threatened. 

“ Indeed, you are quite right, provided it does not 
fatigue you. But, you know, I have the rheumatism 
already.” 

And, seating himself in an arm-chair and taking up a 
newspaper, he added : 

“ Don’t mind me ; finish your receiving, if I am not in 
the way. I have arrived too early, because I had to call 
at my doctor’s and did not find him.” 

Just then the valet de chambre came in to say that 
Madame the Countess de Beauvilliers requested to be 
received. Saccard, a little surprised, although he had 


MONEY. 


130 

already met at the Work of Labor his noble neighbor as 
he called her, gave the order to show her in directly ; 
then, recalling the valet, he commanded him to send 
everybody away, as he was tired and very hungry. 

When the Countess entered, she did not even see 
Maxime, who was hidden by the back of the large arm- 
chair. And Saccard was still more astonished to find 
that she had brought with her her daughter Alice. That 
gave more solemnity to the proceeding : these two women 
so sad and so pale, the mother slender, tall, and very 
white, with an antiquated air, the daughter already aging, 
with a neck that was long to the point of ugliness. He 
advanced chairs with bustling politeness, in order to bet- 
ter show his deference. 

“ Madame, I am extremely honored. ... If I ^should 
have the happiness to be able to be useful to you 

With a great timidity, under her haughty manners, the 
Countess finally explained the motive of hervisit. 

“ Monsieur, it is in consequence of a conversation with 
my friend, Madame the Princess d’Orviedo, that the idea 
occurred to me of presenting myself at your office. I 
confess to you that I hesitated at first, for at my age one 
does not easily reshape her ideas, and I have always been 
very much afraid of the things of to-day which I do not 
understand. At last I have talked with my daughter, 
and I believe it is my duty to stifle my scruples in order 
to try to assure the happiness of those nearest to me.” 

And she continued ; she told how the Princess had 
spoken to her of the Universal Bank, certainly a house of 
credit like the rest in the eyes of the profane, but which, 
in the eyes of the initiated, was to have an irreproachable 
excuse, an object so meritorious and lofty that it must 
impose silence upon the most timorous consciences. She 
did not utter the name of the Pope or the word Jerusa- 
lem ; those were things not to be spoken of, scarcely to 
be whispered among the faithful, the mystery that ex- 
cited the enthusiasm ; but each of her words, allusions, 
and hints revealed a hope and a faith which put a per- 
fect religious flame into her belief in the success of the 
new bank. 


MONEY. 


I3I 

Saccard himself was astonished at her suppressed emo- 
tion at the trembling in her voice. As yet he had spoken 
01 Jerusalem only in the lyric success of his fever; at 
bottom he distrusted this mad project, scenting in it 
something ridiculous, ready to abandon it and to laugh 
at it if it should be welcomed with jests. And the emo- 
tional proceeding of this pious woman who brought her 
daughter, the earnest way in which she gave him to un- 
derstand that she and all her own, the entire French no- 
bility, would believe and become infatuated, struck him 
forcibly, gave substance to what had been purely a dream, 
and infinitely enlarged his field of evolution. It was then 
true that he had a lever here, the employment of which 
would permit him to move the world. With his rapid 
assimilation, he entered at once into the situation, talked 
himself in mysterious terms of this final triumph which 
he would pursue in silence ; and his speech was pene- 
trated with fervor, he had really just been touched with 
faith, with faith in the excellence of the method of ac- 
tion placed in his hands by the crisis through which the 
papacy was passing. He had the happy faculty of be- 
lieving, as soon as the interest of his plans required it. 

“ In short, Monsieur,” continued the Countess, “ I have 
decided upon a thing which hitherto has been repugnant 
to me. Yes, the idea of making money work, of placing 
it at interest, has never entered my head: old ways of 
viewing life, scruples that are becoming a little stupid, I 
know ; but, what would you ? one does not easily go 
counter to the beliefs sucked in with the milk, and I 
imagined that the land alone, the grand property, ought 
to support people like ourselves. Unfortunately the 
grand property” . . . 

. She blushed slightly, for she was coming to the confes- 
sion of the ruin which she had so carefully concealed. 

“ The grand property scarcely exists any longer. We 
have been very much tried. Now we have but one farm 
left.” 

Saccard, then, to save her all embarrassment, out- 
stripped her, taking fire. 

** But, Madame, no one lives by the land in these days, 


I3 2 


MONEY. 


The old-time landed fortune is a decrepit form of wealth, 
which has ceased to have its raison d'etre. It was the 
very stagnation of money, the value of which we have 
increased tenfold, by throwing it into circulation, and by 
paper money, and by titles of all sorts, commercial and 
financial. Thus it is that the world is going to be renewed, 
for nothing was possible without money, liquid money 
that flows, that penetrates everywhere, neither the applica- 
tions of science nor the final universal peace. Oh ! the 
landed fortune ! it has gone to keep company with the 
stage-coaches. With a million in lands one dies ; with a 
fourth of that capital invested in gopd business enter- 
prises at fifteen, twenty, and even thirty per cent, one 
lives.” 

Gently, with her haughty sadness, the Countess shook 
her head. 

“ I scarcely understand you, and, as I have told you, I 
am a remnant of an epoch in which these things were 
feared, as things wicked and forbidden. But I am not 
alone ; above all, I must think of my daughter. In the 
last few years I have succeeded in laying aside, oh! a 
little sum ”... 

Her blush reappeared. 

“ Twenty thousand francs, sleeping at my house, in a 
drawer. Later perhaps I should have felt remorse at 
having left them thus unproductive ; and since your work 
is good, as my friend has confided it to me, and since 
you are going to labor for what we all wish, and wish 
most ardently, I take the venture. In short, I shall be 
grateful to you if you can reserve for me some stock in 
your bank, say to the amount of ten or twelve thousand 
francs. I wanted my daughter to accompany me, for I 
do not conceal from you the fact that this money is 
hers.” 

So far Alice had not opened her mouth, seeming like 
one obliterated, in spite of her look of keen intelligence. 
She made a gesture of tender reproach. 

“ Oh ! mine ! Mamma, have I anything that is not 

•\ y y 

yours r 

“ And your marriage, my child?” 


MONEY. 


133 


“ But you know very well that I do not wish to marry.” 

She had said this too quickly ; the chagrin of her soli- 
tude cried out in her shrill voice. Her mother’s distressed 
glance reduced her to silence ; and all of them looked at 
each other for a moment, unable to lie, in the daily di- 
vision of what they had to suffer and to hide. 

Saccard was greatly moved. 

“ Madame, even though there were no more shares, I 
would find some just the same for you. Yes, if necessary, 
I will take them from my own. The step that you have 
taken touches me infinitely ; I am highly honored by your 
confidence.” 

And at that moment he really believed that he was to 
make the fortune of these unfortunates ; he associated 
them for a share in the golden rain that was about to pour 
upon him and around him. 

These ladies had risen, and were retiring. Only at the 
door did the Countess permit herself a direct allusion to 
the grand affair of which they did not speak. 

“ I have received from my son Ferdinand, who is at 
Rome, a distressing letter regarding the sadness produced 
there by the announcement of the withdrawal of our 
troops.” 

“ Patience ! ” declared Saccard, with conviction, “ we are 
here to save all.” 

They exchanged profound bows, and he accompanied 
them to the steps, passing this time through the ante- 
room which he supposed to be free. But, as he came 
back, he noticed, sitting on a bench, a man of fifty years, 
tall and dry, clad like a dressed-up working-man, who had 
with him a pretty girl of eighteen years, slender and pale. 

“ What ! What do you want ? ” 

The young girl had risen first, and the man, intimidated 
by this abrupt reception, began to stammer a confused 
explanation. 

“ I had given orders that everybody should be sent 
away! Why are you here? Tell me your name at 
least.” 

“ Dejoie, Monsieur, and I come with my daughter Na- 
thalie ”... 


1 34 


MONEY. 


Again he became confused, so much so that Saccard in 
his impatience was about to push him to the door, when 
he finally understood that it was Madame Caroline who 
had known him for a long time and had told him to wait. 

“Ah! you are recommended by Madame Caroline! 
You should have said so at first. Come in and make 
haste, for I am very hungry.” 

In the office he allowed Dejoie and Nathalie to stand ; 
nor did he sit down himself, wishing to despatch them 
more quickly. Maxime, who, on the departure of the 
Countess, had left his arm-chair, was no longer discreet 
enough to hold aloof, but scrutinized the new-comers with 
an air of curiosity. And Dejoie told his story at length. 

“ This is how it is, Monsieur. I served my term in the 
army ; then I was engaged as office-boy by M. Durieu, 
Madame Caroline’s husband, when he was living and a 
brewer. Then I entered the employ of M. Lamberthier, 
the public auctioneer at the Market. Then I was hired 
by M. Blaisot, a banker whom you knew well : he blew 
his brains out two months ago, and so I am out of a job. 
I must tell you, first of all, that I had married. Yes, I 
married my wife Josephine when I was with M. Durieu, 
and when she was cook for Monsieur’s sister-in-law, 
Madame Lévêque, whom Madame Caroline knew well. 
Then, when I was with Monsieur Lamberthier, she could 
not get a place there, but was engaged instead by a doctor 
in Grenelle, Monsieur Renaudin. Then she went to the 
store of the Trois-Frères, Rue Rambuteau, where, by ill- 
luck, I could never get a situation.” . . . 

“In short,” interrupted Saccard, “you come to ask me 
for employment, don’t you?” 

But Dejoie was determined to explain the chagrin of 
his life, the ill-fortune which had led him to marry a cook, 
a situation in the same house with whom he had never 
succeeded in obtaining. It was as if one had not been 
married, never having a common room of their own, see- 
ing each other at wine-shops, embracing each other behind 
the kitchen-doors. And a daughter was born, Nathalie, 
whom he had been obliged to put with a nurse until the 
age of eight, until the day when the father, tired of living 


MONEY. 


135 


alone, had taken her into his contracted bachelor quarters. 
Thus he had become the real mother of the little one, 
bringing her up, leading her to school, watching over her 
with infinite care, his heart overflowing with growing ado- 
ration. 

“ Ah ! I may well say, Monsieur, that she has given me 
satisfaction. She is educated, she is virtuous. Arid, 
you see, she hasn’t her equal for grace.” 

In fact, Saccard found her charming, this blonde flower 
of the Parisian pavements, with her puny grace and her 
large eyes under the little ringlets of her light hair. She 
allowed her father to admire her, virtuous as yet, having 
had no motive to be otherwise, showing a ferocious and 
quiet egoism in the clear brilliancy of her eyes. 

“ So, then, Monsieur, here she is, at an age to marry, 
and now a fine opportunity presents itself, the son of our 
neighbor, the box-maker. But he is a fellow who wishes 
to establish himself in business, and he wants six thousand 
francs. It is not too much ; he might aspire to the hand 
of a girl who would bring him more. I must tell you that 
I have lost my wife, four years ago, and that she left us 
her savings, her little profits as a cook, you know. I 
have four thousand francs ; but that is not six thousand, 
and the young man is in a hurry, Nathalie too ”... 

The young girl, who was listening, with a smiling face, 
and her clear look so cold and decided, suddenly nodded 
affirmation with her chin. 

“ Surely. My situation is not amusing ; I wish to end 
it, in one way or another.” 

Again Saccard interrupted them. He had estimated 
the man, limited, but very upright, very good, broken to 
military discipline. Moreover, it was enough that he pre- 
sented himself in the name of Madame Caroline. 

“ All right, my friend ! I am going to have a news- 
paper, I engage you to look out for the office. Leave me 
your address, and au revoir .” 

Nevertheless Dejoie did not go away. He continued 
with embarrassment : 

» Monsieur is very kind ; I accept the place with grati- 
tude, because I shall have to work, when I have placed 


MONEY. 


136 

Nathalie. But I came for something else. Yes, I have 
* heard, through Madame Caroline and through other per- 
sons also, that Monsieur is about to go into great enter- 
prises, and that he can put his friends and acquaintances 
in a position to make all that he likes. Then, if Monsieur 
would be kind enough to interest himself in us, if Monsieur 
would consent to let us have some of his stock” . . . 

A second time Saccard was moved, more moved than 
he had just been the first time, when the Countess had 
intrusted to him, she too, her daughter’s dowry. This 
simple man, this very little capitalist with his savings 
scraped up sou by sou, did he not represent the believing, 
trusting multitude, the great multitude that furnishes a 
numerous and solid patronage, the fanatical army that 
arms a house of credit with invincible power? If this 
worthy man came hurrying thus, in advance of any adver- 
tising, what would it be when the wickets should be 
opened? His emotion smiled upon this first little stock- 
holder; he saw here an omen of an immense success. 

“ Agreed, my friend, you shall have some shares.” 

Dejoie’s face became radiant, as at the announcement 
of an unexpected favor. 

“ Monsieur is too good. In six months, with my four 
thousand francs, I can easily make two thousand more, 
and thus complete the sum. And, since Monsieur con- 
sents, I prefer to settle the matter directly. I have 
brought the money.” 

He fumbled in his pocket and took out an envelope, 
which he handed to Saccard, who stood motionless, silent, 
struck with charmed admiration at this last manifestation. 
And the terrible corsair, who had already gathered up so 
many fortunes, burst into a good laugh, honestly resolved 
to enrich him also, this man of faith. 

“ But, my worthy man, things are not done in this way. 
Keep your money; I will put your name down, and you 
shall pay at the proper time and in the proper place.” 

This time he dismissed them, after Dejoie had again 
expressed his thanks through Nathalie, whose hard and 
candid eyes lighted up with a smile of content. 


MONEY. 


13 ; 

At last, when Maxime was alone with his father once 
more, he said, with his air of mocking insolence : 

* So you are in the business of endowing young girls 
now?” 

“ Wh Y not ? ” answered Saccard, gayly, “ the happiness 
of others is a good investment.” 

He arranged some papers, preparatory to leaving his 
office. Then suddenly he broke out : 

“And you, don’t you want some shares?” 

Maxime, who was walking up and down with short 
steps, turned around with a start, and planted himself in 
front of him. 

“ Oh ! no, indeed ! Do you take me for an imbecile?” 

Saccard made an angry gesture, finding the reply de- 
plorably lacking in respect and in wit, ready to cry out 
to him that the affair was really superb, that he judged 
him really too stupid if he thought him a simple robber, 
like the others. But, as he looked at him, a feeling of 
pity came over him for his poor boy, exhausted at the age 
of twenty-five, sedate and even avaricious, so aged by 
vices, so disturbed about his health, that he no longer 
risked an expense or an enjoyment without having calcu- 
lated the profit. And thoroughly consoled, very proud 
of the passionate imprudence of his fifty years, he began 
to laugh again, and clapped him on the shoulder. 

“Come, let’s go to breakfast, my poor little one, and be 
careful of your rheumatism.” 

On the next day but one, the fifth of October, Saccard, 
accompanied by Hamelin and Daigremont, went to the 
office of Lelorrain, the notary, in the Rue Sainte-Anne. 
And there the act of incorporation was received, consti- 
tuting, under the title of Society of the Universal Bank, 
a joint-stock company, with a capital of twenty-five mil- 
lions, divided into fifty thousand shares of five hundred 
francs each, of which only a fourth was demandable. 
The office of the company was fixed in the Rue Saint-La- 
zare, at the Hôtel d’Orviedo. A copy of the by-laws, 
drawn up in accordance with the act of incorporation, 
was deposited at the lawyer’s office. It happened to be 
a very bright sunny autumn day, and these gentlemen, 


Money. 


138 

when they left the notary, lighted their cigars and saun- 
tered through the Boulevard and the Rue de la Chaussée- 
d’Antin, happy in living, as lively as school-boys escaped 
from school. 

The general constitutive assembly did not meet until 
the following week, in the Rue Blanche, in a hall formerly 
used for a public ball, the manager of which had gone 
into bankruptcy, and where a manufacturer was trying 
to organize exhibitions of paintings. Already the syndi- 
cators had placed those shares which they had subscribed 
for but did not want to keep; and there came one hun- 
dred and twenty-two stockholders, representing nearly 
forty thousand shares, which should have given a total of 
two thousand votes, twenty shares being necessary to en- 
title one to sit and vote. Nevertheless, as no stockholder 
could cast more than ten votes, no matter how many 
shares he might hold, the exact number of ballots was 
sixteen hundred and forty-three. 

Saccard absolutely insisted that Hamelin should pre- 
side. As for himself, he had voluntarily disappeared in 
the audience. He had put down the engineer’s name and 
his own for five hundred shares each, which were to be 
paid for by a trick of hand-writing. All the syndicators 
were there : Daigremont, Huret, Sédille, Kolb, the Mar- 
quis de Bohain, each with the group of stockholders that 
marched under his orders. Sabatani was likewise noticed, 
one of the largest subscribers, as well as Jantrou, amid 
several of the higher officials of the bank, which had been 
in operation for two days.' And all the steps to be taken 
had been so thoroughly foreseen and settled in advance 
that never was a constitutive assembly so beautifully calm, 
simple, and harmonious. By a unanimous vote they rec- 
ognized the sincerity of the declaration that the entire 
capital had been subscribed as well as that of the pay- 
ment of the one hundred and twenty-five francs per share. 
Then, solemnly, they declared the Society constituted. 
Next the board of directors was elected : it was to consist 
of twenty members, who, beside the attendance-fees, 
figured at an annual total of fifty thousand francs, were 
to receive, according to an article of the by-laws, ten per 


MONEY. 


139 


Cent, of the profits. As this was not to be disdained, 
each syndicator had insisted on being a member of the 
board ; and Daigremont, Huret, Sédille, Kolb, the Mar- 
quis de Bohain, as well as Hamelin, whom they wished to 
elect to the presidency, naturally appeared at the head of 
the list, with fourteen others of less importance, selected 
from among the most obedient and most ornamental of 
the stockholders. Finally, Saccard, who had remained in 
the shadow so far, appeared when, the time for choosing 
a manager having arrived, Hamelin proposed him. A 
sympathetic murmur welcomed his name, and he too ob- 
tained a unanimous vote. And nothing remained but to 
elect the two auditors, charged with presenting to the as- 
sembly a report on the balance-sheet and thus verify- 
ing the accounts furnished by the directors : a delicate 
as well as useless function, for which Saccard had desig- 
nated a certain Rousseau and a certain Lavignière, the 
first completely under the influence of the second, and 
the second tall, blonde, and very polite, always approving, 
consumed with a desire to become a member of the board 
later, when they should be content with his services. 
Rosseau and Lavignière having been elected, the meeting 
was about to adjourn, when the president thought he 
ought to refer to the premium of ten per cent, granted to 
the . syndicators, in all four hundred thousand francs, 
which the meeting, on his proposition, charged to the 
expenses of organization. It was a trifle ; it was neces- 
sary to give the fire its due ; and, leaving the throng of 
little stockholders to disperse like a flock of sheep, the 
large subscribers remained until the last, shaking hands 
with each other on the sidewalk, with smiling faces. 

The next day the board met at the Hôtel d’Orviedo, in 
Saccard’s former reception-room, transformed into a di- 
rectors’ room. An immense table, covered with a cloth 
of green velvet, surrounded by twenty arm-chairs uphols- 
tered with the same material, occupied the centre ; and 
there was no other furniture except two book-cases, whose 
windows were furnished on the inside with little silk cur- 
tains also green. The deep red hangings darkened the 
room, whose three windows opened upon the garden of 


140 


MONEY. 


the Beauvilliers. Through them came only a half-light, 
like the peace of an old cloister, asleep under the green 
shade of its trees. It was severe and noble ; it gave an 
impression of antique honesty. 

The board met to arrange the office ; and almost all the 
members were present when the clock struck four. The 
Marquis de Bohain, with his tall figure and little pale and 
aristocratic head, was really very old France ; while the 
affable Daigremont represented lofty imperial fortune, in 
his pompous success. Sédille, less agitated than usual, 
was taking with Kolb of an unexpected movement 
that had just appeared on the Vienna stock-market ; 
and around them the other directors, the band, were 
listening, trying to catch a bit of information, or else were 
talking to each other of their personal affairs, being there 
only to complete the number and gather their share of 
booty on days of division. It was, as usual, Huret who 
came late, out of breath, having escaped at the last minute 
from a meetirig of a committee of the Chamber. He ex- 
cused himself, and they sat down in the arm-chairs sur- 
rounding the table. 

The eldest, the Marquis de Bohain, had taken his 
place in the presidential arm-chair, which was higher and 
more gilded than the others. Saccard, as manager, had 
placed himself opposite him. And immediately, when 
the Marquis had declared that they would now proceed 
with the nomination of the president, Hamelin arose to 
decline to be a candidate : he believed he knew that 
several of these gentlemen had thought of him for the 
presidency; but he pointed out to them that he was to 
start the next day for the Orient, that furthermore he 
was absolutely inexperienced in regard to book-keeping, 
banking, and the Bourse, and that, in short, this was a 
responsibility the burden of which he could not accept. 
Saccard listened to him in great surprise, for, only the 
night before, the thing had been settled ; and he divined 
the influence of Madame Caroline upon her brother, know- 
ing that in the morning they had had a long conversation 
together. Accordingly, not wishing any other president 
than Hamelin, fearing some independent man who might 


MONEY. 


I4I 

embarrass him, he permitted himself to intervene, ex- 
plaining that the office was principally honorary, and that 
the president simply had to put in an appearance at the 
stockholders’ meetings, to support the propositions of the 
board and make the customary speeches. Moreover, they 
were going to elect a vice-president, who would give the 
signature. And as for the rest, the purely technical part, 
the account-keeping, the Bourse, the thousand inner de- 
tails of a great house of credit, would he not be there, he, 
Saccard, the manager, expressly appointed for this pur- 
pose ? According to the by-laws, he must manage the 
work of the office, look after the receipts and expendi- 
tures, direct current affairs, carry out the wishes of the 
board, and be, in short, the executive power of the 
society. These reasons seemed good. Nevertheless, 
Hamelin resisted some time longer; Daigremont and 
Huret themselves had to urge him in the most press- 
ing manner. The majestic Marquis de Bohain showed no 
interest in the matter. Finally the engineer yielded ; he 
was elected president, and they chose as vice-president an 
obscure agriculturist, a former State-councillor, the Vis- 
count de Robin-Chagot, a mild, dull person, an excellent 
machine for signatures. As for the secretary, he was 
selected from outside the board, from the officials of the 
bank, the head of the issue department. As night was 
bringing into the large sombre room a greenish shade of 
infinite sadness, they judged the work good and sufficient, 
and separated, after having fixed the meetings at two a 
month, the petty council on the fifteenth and the grand 
council on the thirtieth. 

Saccard and Hamelin went up together to the work- 
room, where Madame Caroline was awaiting them. She 
saw clearly at once, from her brother’s embarrassment, 
that he had just yielded once more through weakness ; 
and for a moment she was angry. 

“ But, see, it is not reasonable ! ” cried Saccard. “ Re- 
flect that the president receives thirty thousand francs, a 
figure which will be doubled when our business shall en- 
large. You are not rich enough to disdain this advan- 
tage. And, tell me, what do you fear ? ” 


142 


MONEY. 


“ Why, I fear everything,” answered Madame Caroline. 
“ My brother will not be here, and, for myself, I know 
nothing about money. See ! these five hundred shares 
which you have put down for him, and which he does not 
pay for directly, — well, isn’t that irregular, wouldn’t he be 
in trouble if the enterprise should not succeed?” 

He had begun to laugh. 

“ What a fuss about nothing ! Five hundred shares, a 
first payment of sixty-two thousand five hundred francs ! 
If from the first profits, inside of six months, he could not 
pay that, we might as well all of us throw ourselves into 
the Seine at once, rather than give ourselves the trouble 
to undertake anything at all. No, you can rest easy; 
speculation devours only the stupid.” 

She remained severe, in the growing darkness of the 
room. But two lamps were brought, and the walls were 
broadly lighted, showing the vast plans and bright water- 
colors, which made her dream so often of the far-off lands. 
The plain was still bare, the mountains barred the hori- 
zon, and she saw once more the distress of this old world 
sleeping over its treasures and which science was going to 
reawaken in its filth and in its ignorance. What grand and 
beautiful and good things to be accomplished ! Gradually 
a vision appeared to her of the new generations, a stronger 
and happier humanity springing from the ancient soil, 
ploughed afresh by progress. 

“ Speculation, speculation,” she murmured, mechani- 
cally, struggling against doubt. 

Saccard, who was familiar with her habitual thoughts, 
had followed this hope of the future in her face. 

“ Yes, speculation. Why does this word frighten you ? 
But speculation is the very hope of life, it is the eternal 
desire that forces us to struggle and to live. If I might 
venture a comparison, I could convince you.” . . . 

He laughed again, seized with a scruple of delicacy. 
Then he ventured just the same, willingly brutal before 
women. 

“ See, do you think that without how shall I say 
it ? withou t debauchery, we should make many children ? 
For every hundred children that we fail to make, we sue- 


MONEY. 


143 


ceed in making scarcely one. It is excess that provides 
the necessary, isn’t it ? ” 

“ Certainly,” she answered, embarrassed. 

“ Well, without speculation we should do no business, 
my dear friend. Why the devil do you wish me to take 
out my money, to risk my fortune, if you do not promise 
me extraordinary enjoyment, a sudden happiness that 
opens heaven before me ? With the legitimate and mod- 
erate reward of labor, the prudent equilibrium of daily 
transactions, existence is a very flat desert, a marsh in 
which all forces sleep and stagnate ; whereas, cause a 
dream to violently flame up at the horizon, promise that 
with one sou a hundred shall be made, offer all these 
sleepers a chance in the chase after the impossible, mill- 
ions conquered in two hours amid the most frightful reck- 
lessness ; and the race begins, energies are increased ten- 
fold, the jostle is such that, while sweating solely for their 
pleasure, people sometimes succeed in making children, I 
mean living, grand, and beautiful things. Ah ! there is 
much useless filth, but certainly the world would come to 
an end without it.” 

Madame Caroline had decided to laugh, she too ; for 
she had no prudishness. 

“ Then,” said she, “ your conclusion is that we must be 
resigned, since that enters into nature’s plan. You are 
right ; life is not clean. 

And a real Tourage had come to her at the thought 
that every step in progress is taken through blood and 
mud. It was necessary to will. Her eyes had not left 
the plans and designs stretched along the walls, and the 
future appeared to her, with its seaports, canals, roads, 
railways, country districts with their immense farms 
equipped like factories, and new cities, healthy and intel- 
ligent, where people lived very old and very learned. 

« Well,” she continued gayly, “ I have to yield as 
usual. Let us try to do a little good that we may be 
forgiven.” 

Her brother, who had remained silent, now drew near 
and embraced her. She threatened him with her finger. 

“Oh! you, you area coaxer. I know you. To-mor- 


144 


MONEY. 


row, when you have left us, you will trouble yourself but 
little about what is going on here ; and, as soon as you are 
buried in your work in the far-off countries, all will go 
well ; you will be dreaming of triumph, while the enter- 
prise perhaps is cracking under our feet.” 

“But,” cried Saccard, jokingly, “since it is agreed that 
he leaves you beside me like a gendarme , to arrest me, if 
I behave badly ! ” 

All three burst out laughing. 

“ And you can rely upon it that I will arrest you ! 
Remember what you have promised us, us first, and then 
so many others, for instance, my worthy Dejoie, whom I 
recommend to you. Ah ! and our neighbors also, those 
poor Beauvilliers ladies, whom I saw to-day superintend- 
ing the washing of a few clothes by their cook, undoubt- 
edly to reduce the laundry bill.” 

For a moment longer all three talked very amicably, 
and the departure of Hamelin was definitely settled. 

As Saccard went down again to his office, the valet de 
chambre told him that a woman had insisted on waiting 
for him, although he had answered her that there was a 
meeting of the board, and that doubtless Monsieur would 
be unable to receive her. At first, in his fatigue, he be- 
came angry, and gave the order to send her away ; then 
the thought that he owed himself to success, the fear of 
changing his luck should he close his door, made him re- 
consider. The flood of solicitors increased daily, and this 
multitude brought him intoxication. 

. A single lamp lighted the office, and he could not see 
his visitor very clearly. 

“ I am sent by Monsieur Busch, Monsieur.” 

His wrath kept him standing, and he did not even tell 
her to sit down. By this piping voice, coming from a 
superabundance of flesh, he had just recognized Madame 
Méchain. A pretty stockholder, this buyer of stocks by 
the pound ! 

She calmly explained that Busch sent her to get infor- 
mation as to the issue of the Universal Bank. Were 
there any shares left ? Could one hope to get any, with 
the premium granted to the syndicators? But this surely 


MONEY. 


145 


was only a pretext, a way of getting in, of seeing the 
house, of spying what was going on inside, and of exam- 
ining himself ; for her little eyes, gimlet-holes in the flesh 
of her face, ferreted everywhere, and came back inces- 
santly to search his very soul. Busch, after long and pa- 
tient waiting, ripening the famous affair of the abandoned 
child, had decided to act, and had sent her out as a scout. 

“ There are none left,” answered Saccard brutally. 

She felt that she would learn nothing more, and that it 
would be imprudent to attempt anything. Consequently, 
without waiting to be dismissed, she took a step towards 
the door. 

“ Why don’t you ask me for some shares for yourself?” 
he added, with the intention of offending her. 

With her lisping voice, her pointed voice that had a 
tone of mockery in it, she answered : 

“ Oh ! I do not operate that way. I wait.”' 

And just then, noticing the immense worn leather bag 
which never left her, he felt a shudder pass through him. 
A day when everything had gone to his liking, a day when 
he was so happy in witnessing at last the birth of the 
house of credit so much desired, was this rascally old 
woman to prove the wicked fairy, the fairy who casts a 
spell over the princesses in the cradle? He felt that it 
was full of depreciated values, of unclassed stocks, this 
bag which she came to parade in the offices of his just- 
born bank. He thought he understood that she threat- 
ened to wait as long as it might be necessary in order to 
bury his stocks in it in their turn, when the house should 
fall. It was the cry of the raven that starts with the army 
on the march, follows it until the night of the carnage, 
hovers and swoops down, knowing that there will be dead 
to eat. 

“ An revoir , Monsieur,” said the Méchain, as she retired, 
panting and very polite. 


V. 


A MONTH later, in the early days of November, the in- 
stallation of the Universal Bank was not finished. The 
carpenters were still putting up the wainscotings, and the 
painters were finishing applying the putty to the enormous 
glass roof with which the court-yard had been covered. 

This slowness was due to Saccard, who, dissatisfied with 
the stinginess of the installation, prolonged the work for 
the sake of unreasonable luxuries ; and, not being able to 
set back the walls in order to realize his continual dream 
of the enormous, he had become angry at last, and thrown 
off upon Madame Caroline the duty of finally dismissing 
the contractors. She therefore superintended the placing 
of the last wickets. There was an extraordinary number 
of wickets ; the court-yard, transformed into a central hall, 
was surrounded with them : grated wickets, severe and 
dignified, surmounted with beautiful brass plates, bearing 
the signs in black letters. In short, the disposition, 
although effected in rather limited quarters, was a very 
happy one : on the ground floor, the services which were 
to be in constant relation with the public, the different 
cash offices, the issue offices, all the current banking 
operations ; and up-stairs the inner mechanism, so to 
speak, the management, the correspondence, the account- 
keeping, the offices for disputed claims, and the private 
offices. In all, more than two hundred employees moved 
about in this restricted space. And what struck one as 
soon as he entered, even amidst the bustle of the work- 
ingmen, finishing driving their nails while the gold jingled 
at the bottom of the wooden bowls, was this air of severity, 
an air of ancient probity, savoring vaguely of the sacristy, 
which was due undoubtedly to the premises, this old, dark, 
damp mansion, silent in the shadow of the trees of the 


MONEY. I47 

neighboring garden. One felt the same sensation that 
one feels on entering a house of piety. 

One afternoon, on returning from the Bourse, Saccard 
himself felt this sensation, which surprised him. It con- 
soled him for the absent gildings. He manifested his 
satisfaction to Madame Caroline. 

“ Well! all the same, for a beginning, this is good. It 
has a family air, a real little chapel. Later we shall see. 
Thank you, my beautiful friend, for all the trouble you 
have taken in the absence of your brother.” 

And as he made it a principle to utilize unexpected cir- 
cumstances, he exercised his ingenuity from that time in 
developing this austere appearance in the house. He im- 
posed upon his employees the manners of young priests; 
they spoke only in measured tones ; they received and 
gave money with thoroughly clerical discretion. 

Never had Saccard in his tumultuous life expended him- 
self with so much activity. In the morning, at seven 
o’clock, in advance of all the clerks, before even his office 
boy had lighted his fire, he was at his desk, opening his 
mail and answering already the most pressing letters. 
Then, until eleven o’clock there was an interminable 
gallop, the principal friends and customers of the house, 
brokers, remisiers , the whole host of finance ; to say noth- 
ing of the procession of heads of departments, coming 
for orders. As soon as he had a minute’s rest, he rose and 
made a rapid inspection of the various offices, where the 
employees lived in terror of his sudden appearances, 
which occurred at hours incessantly changing. At eleven 
o’clock he went u]$ to breakfast with Madame Caroline, 
ate heartily and drank heartily, with the ease of a thin 
man who is not inconvenienced thereby; and the full 
hour which he spent there was not wasted, for that was 
the time when, as he said, he confessed his beautiful 
friend, — that is, when he asked her for her opinion about 
men and things, although generally not knowing how to 
profit by her great wisdom. At noon he went out to the 
Bourse, wishing to be one of the first, in order to see and 
talk. However, he did not gamble openly, but went 
there as to a natural rendezvçus , where he was certain of 


J48 


MONEY. 


meeting the customers of his bank. Moreover, his influ- 
ence.was already felt there ; he had re-entered as a con- 
queror, a solid man, supported henceforth by real mill- 
ions ; and the shrewd ones talked in low tones as they 
looked at him, whispered extraordinary rumors, predicted 
his approaching royalty. Toward half-past three he was 
always back again, harnessing himself down to the irk- 
some task of signatures, so trained in this mechanical 
movement of the hand that he summoned employees, 
gave answers, regulated affairs, with head free and speak- 
ing at his ease, without ceasing to sign. Until six o’clock 
he again received visitors, finished the work of the day, 
and prepared that of to-morrow. And when he went up 
again to Madame Caroline, it was for a meal more copious 
than that of eleven o’clock, delicate fish and especially 
game, with caprices in the matter of wine that led him 
to dine with Burgundy, Bordeaux, or Champagne, accord- 
ing to the fortunate employment that he had made of his 
day. 

“ Tell me that I am not prudent ! ” he cried sometimes, 
with a smile. “ Instead of frequenting women, the clubs, 
and the theatres, I live here, like a good bourgeois , beside 
you. You must write that to your brother, to reassure 
him.” 

He was not as prudent as he pretended, having taken 
a fancy at that time for a little singer at the Bouffes ; and 
he had even forgotten himself one day, in his turn, at 
Germaine Cœurs, where he had found no satisfaction. 
The truth was that at night he was ready to drop with 
fatigue. He lived, moreover, in such £ desire, in such an 
anxiety, for success, that his other appetites were bound 
to remain diminished and paralyzed until he should feel 
himself triumphant, fortune’s undisputed master. 

“ Bah ! ” answered Madame Caroline, gayly, “ my 
brother has always been so prudent that prudence is to 
him a natural condition, and not a merit. I wrote him 
yesterday that I had induced you not to regild the di- 
rectors’ room. That will give him more pleasure.” 

It was, then, on a very cold afternoon in the early days 
of November, at the moment when Madame Caroline 


MONEY. 


H9 

Was giving the head painter an order to simply clean the 
paint in the directors’ room, that they brought her a card 
saying that the person strongly insisted on seeing her! 
ihe card, a dirty one, bore the name of Busch, coarsely 
printed. She did not know the name ; she ordered that 
he be shown up to her brother’s room, where she re- 
ceived. 

If Busch for six long months had been patient and had 
not utilized the extraordinary discovery which he had 
made of Saccard’s natural son, it was in the first place for 
the reasons that he had foreseen, — the comparatively 
trifling success that there would be in simply getting from 
him the six hundred francs promised in the notes given 
to the mother, and the extreme difficulty of blackmailing 
him in order to obtain more, a reasonable sum of a few 
thousand francs. A widower, free from all embarrass- 
ments and but little afraid of scandal, — how terrorize him, 
how make him pay dear for this ugly present of a child 
of chance, who had grown up in the mud, the germ of a 
bully and an assassin? Undoubtedly the Méchain had 
laboriously made out a long bill of expenses, about six 
thousand francs: little sums lent to Rosalie Chavaille, her 
cousin, the mother of the little one; then what the poor 
woman’s sickness had cost her, her burial, the care of her 
grave, and finally what she had spent for Victor himself 
since he had fallen to her charge,— food, clothing, and a 
multitude of things. But in case Saccard should not 
prove a tender father, was it not likely that he would 
send them about their business? For there was nothin»- 
in the world to prove him the father, except the resenT 
blance of the child ; and at most they would get from 
him only the amount of the notes, provided he did not 
claim that they were outlawed. 

On the other hand, if Busch had delayed so long, it 
was because he had just passed weeks of frightful anxiety 
by the side of his brother Sigismond, who was in bed, 
taken down with consumption. For a fortnight especially, 
this terrible hustler had neglected everything, forgotten 
the thousand confused scents which he was following, 
appearing no more at the Bourse, tracing not a single 


MONEY. 


iSô 

creditor, never leaving the bedside of the patient, whom he 
watched over, cared for, and changed, like a mother. Be- 
coming prodigal, he who was so basely stingy, he summoned 
the first doctors of Paris, and would willingly have paid 
for the most expensive drugs at the apothecary’s if they 
could have been more efficacious ; and, as the doctors had 
forbidden all labor and Sigismond was obstinate, he hid 
his papers and books. Between them it had become a 
war of strategy. As soon as his guardian, overcome by 
fatigue, fell asleep, the young man, drenched with per- 
spiration and devoured by fever, managed to find a bit 
of pencil and the margin of a newspaper and again began 
his calculations, distributing wealth according to his dream 
of justice, insuring each his share of happiness and life. 
And Busch, on waking, was irritated to find him sicker, 
heart-broken to think that he would thus give to his 
chimera the little that was left him of life. He allowed 
him to play with these stupidities as one allows jumping- 
jacks to a child, — when he was in good health ; but to 
assassinate himself with mad, impracticable ideas, really 
it was imbecile ! Finally, having consented to be prudent 
through affection for his elder brother, Sigismond had 
recovered some strength, and was beginning to get up. 

Then Busch, going back to his work, declared that it 
was time to settle the Saccard matter, especially as Sac- 
card had re-entered the Bourse as a conqueror and had 
again become a personage of indisputable solvency. The 
report of Madame Méchain, whom he had sent to the 
Rue Saint-Lazare, was excellent. Nevertheless he still 
hesitated to attack his man in front, and was delaying in 
the hope of discovering some method by which to con- 
quer him, when a word dropped by the Méchain regard- 
ing Madame Caroline, the lady who kept the house and 
of whom all the storekeepers in the neighborhood had 
spoken to him, started him in a new plan of campaign. 
Was this lady perchance the real mistress, she who held 
the key of the closets and of the heart ? He frequently 
obeyed what he called the stroke of inspiration, yielding 
to a sudden divination, starting upon the chase from a 
simple indication of his scent, certain then of acquiring 


Money. 


î$î 

certainty and resolution from the facts. And thus it was 
that he went to the Rue Saint-Lazare to see Madame 
Caroline. 

*Up-stairs in the work-room Madame Caroline stood in 
surprise before this stout, ill-shaven man, with his flat and 
dirty face and wearing a fine greasy frock-coat and a 
white cravat. He on the other hand searched her very 
soul, finding her such as he desired her to be, so tall and 
healthy, with her wonderful white hair, which lighted her 
still young face with gayety and gentleness; and he was 
especially struck by the expression of her mouth, a little 
strong, such an expression of goodness that he at once 
made up his mind. 

“Madame,” said he, “ I should have liked to see Mon- 
sieur Saccard, but they just told me that he was not in.” 

He lied ; he had not even asked for him, for he knew 
very well that he was not in, having watched his depart- 
ure for the Bourse. 

“ And so I permitted myself to apply to you, really 
preferring this, not being ignorant of the person to whom 
I address myself. It is a matter of a communication so 
serious and so delicate.” . . . 

_ Madame Caroline, who thus far had not asked him to 
sit down, indicated a chair to him with anxious alacrity. 

“ Speak, Monsieur, I am listening.” 

Busch, carefully lifting the skirts of his coat, which he 
seemed to be afraid of soiling, put it down in his own 
mind for a fixed fact that she slept with Saccard. 

“ You see, Madame, it is not an easy thing to say, and 
I confess to you that at the last moment I ask myself if I 
really ought to confide such a matter to you. I hope 
that you will see in my conduct solely a desire to permit 
Monsieur Saccard to repair old wrongs.” 

With a gesture she put him at his ease, having under- 
stood in her turn with what sort of personage she had to 
deal and desiring to abridge useless protestations. For 
the rest, he did not insist, but began to tell the old story : 
Rosalie seduced in the Rue de la Harpe, the birth of the 
child after Saccard’s disappearance, the death of the 
mother in poverty and debauchery, and Victor left in the 


152 


MONEY. 


care of a cousin too busy to watch him, growing up in the 
midst of abjection. She listened to him, astonished at 
first by this romance which she did not expect, for she 
had imagined that it was a question of some doubtful 
financial adventure ; then she visibly softened, moved by 
the mother’s sad fate and the abandonment of the child, 
deeply stirred in her childless woman’s maternal instinct. 

“ But,” said she, “ are you certain, Monsieur, of the facts 
that you tell me? Very strong proofs are needed, ab- 
solute proofs, in support of such stories.” 

He smiled. 

“ Oh ! Madame, there is a blinding proof, the extraor- 
dinary resemblance of the child. Besides, there are the 
dates, everything harmonizes and proves the facts beyond 
a doubt.” 

She was trembling, and he observed it. After a silence, 
he continued : 

“You understand now, Madame, how embarrassing it 
was for me to address myself directly to Monsieur Sac- 
card. For myself, I have no personal interest in the 
matter; I come only in the name of Madame Méchain, 
the cousin, whom chance alone has put upon the track of 
the father so long sought ; for I have had the honor to 
tell you that the twelve notes of fifty francs each, given to 
the unfortunate Rosalie, were signed with the name 
Sicardot, a thing which I do not permit myself to judge, 
excusable, my God ! in this terrible life of Paris. But, 
you see, Monsieur Saccard might have misunderstood the 
nature of my intervention. And then I was inspired with 
the idea of seeing you first, Madame, to be guided entirely 
by you as to the best course to follow, knowing what an 
interest you take in Monsieur Saccard. . . . There ! you 
have our secret. Do you think that I should wait for 
him and tell him all, to-day?” 

Madame Caroline showed increasing emotion. 

“ No, no, later ! ” 

But she herself did not know what to do, in the strange- 
ness of the secret thus confided. He continued to study 
her, satisfied of the extreme sensibility that placed her in 
his power, finishing the construction of his plan, certain 


MONEY. IJ3 

henceforth of getting from her more than Saccard would 
ever have given. 

“You see,” he murmured, “it is necessary to come to 
some decision.” 

“ Well, I will go. . . . Yes, I will go to this City, I will 
go to see this Madame Méchain and the child. It is 
better, much better that I should first see things for my- 
self.” 

She thought aloud ; she had just formed a resolution to 
make a careful investigation before saying anything to the 
father. Then, if she was convinced, there would be time 
to tell him. Was she not there to watch over his house 
and his peace of mind ? 

u Unfortunately, the necessity is pressing,” replied 
Busch, bringing her little by little to the desired point. 
“ The poor boy is suffering. He is in abominable sur- 
roundings.” 

She had risen. 

“ I will put on my hat and go at once.” 

In his turn he had to leave his seat, and he added care- 
lessly : 

“ I say nothing of the little bill that there will be to 
settle. Of course the child has been an expense ; and 
there was also some money lent during the mother’s life. 
Oh ! I don’t know just how much. I did not charge my 
mind with the figures. All the papers are there.” 

“Very well, I am going to see.” 

Then he seemed to be moved himself. 

“Ah ! Madame, if you knew all the queer things that I 
see in business ! The most honest people have to suffer 
later from their passions, or, what is worse, from the 
passions of their relatives. For instance, I could cite you 
an example. Your unfortunate neighbors, these Beauvil- 
liers ladies”. . . 

With a sudden movement he had approached ope of 
the windows, and was plunging his ardently curious gaze 
into the neighboring garden. Undoubtedly, since his 
entrance, he had been planning this attempt to spy, liking 
to know his battle-grounds. In the matter of the acknowl- 
edgment of ten thousand francs, signed by the Count 


money. 


IS 4 

in favor of .the girl Léonie Cron, he had guessed truly; 
the information sent from Vendôme corroborated his 
theory of the adventure : the girl seduced, left without a 
sou, at the death of the Count, with her bit of useless 
paper, and consumed with a desire to come to Paris, and 
finally leaving the paper as security with the usurer 
Charpier, for fifty francs perhaps. But, though he had 
straightway found the Beauvilliers, he had had the 
Méchain scouring Paris for six months without succeed- 
ing in putting his hand upon Léonie. She had become a 
maid of all work in the house of a sheriff’s officer, and he 
traced her into three places ; then, dismissed for notorious 
misbehavior, she disappeared, and in vain had he searched 
all the gutters. This exasperated him the more as he 
could make no attempt upon the Countess until he should 
have the girl as a living menace of scandal. But none the 
less he nursed the affair ; standing before the window, he 
felt happy to know the garden of the mansion, of which 
he had previously seen nothing but the façade from the 
street. 

“ Are these ladies likewise threatened with some an- 
noyance? ” asked Madame Caroline, with anxious sympa- 
thy. 

He pretended innocence. 

“ No, I do not think so. I referred simply to the sad 
situation in which the Count’s misconduct has left them. 
Yes, I have friends at Vendôme, I know their story.” 

And as he finally made up his mind to leave the win- 
dow, he felt, in the emotion which he feigned, a sudden 
and singular reaction upon himself. 

“ Still, if there are only money losses ! But it is when 
death enters a house ! ” 

This time real tears moistened his eyes. He had just 
thought of his brother, and he choked. She thought 
that he had recently lost one of his own, and she dis- 
creetly refrained from questioning him. So far she had 
not been deceived as to the base designs of this person- 
age, who inspired her with a feeling of repugnance ; and 
these unexpected tears determined her more than 


MONËY. 

the shrewdest tactics : her desire increased to hasten di- 
rectly to the City of Naples. 

“ Then, Madame, I rely upon you ?” 

“ I start on the instant.” 

An hour later, Madame Caroline, who had taken a car- 
riage, was wandering behind the Butte Montmartre, un- 
able to find the City. Finally, in one of the deserted 
streets running out of the Rue Marcadet, an old woman 
pointed it out to the driver. At the entrance it was like 
a country road, broken up, obstructed with mud and 
refuse, sunk in the middle of a tract of waste land ; and 
only after an attentive glance did one distinguish the 
miserable shanties, made of earth, old boards, and old 
zinc, like heaps of rubbish, ranged around the inner court- 
yard. On the street a one-story house built of rough 
stones, but repulsive in its decrepitude and filth, seemed 
to command the entrance, like a jail. And here indeed 
Madame Méchain lived, like a vigilant proprietor, inces- 
santly on the watch, exploiting her little population of 
starving tenants herself. 

As soon as Madame Caroline had stepped from the 
carriage, she saw her appear on the threshold, enormous, 
with bosom and belly flowing in an old silk dress frayed 
at the folds and cracked at the seams, and with cheeks so 
puffy and red that her little nose, almost out of sight, 
seemed to be cooking between two coals. Madame Caro- 
line, filled with a sudden feeling of uneasiness, hesitated, 
when the very mild voice, with its sourish fascination of 
a shepherd’s pipe, reassured her. 

“Ah ! Madame, Monsieur Busch sends you; you come 
for little Victor. Come in, come in. Yes, this is really 
the City of Naples. The street is not classified ; we have 
no numbers yet. Come in. We must talk it all over 
first. My God ! it is so annoying, it is so sad ! ” 

And Madame Caroline had to accept a dilapidated 
chair, in a dining-room black with grease, where a red 
stove maintained a stifling heat and odor. The Mèchain 
made a great deal of talk aboufthe visitor’s luck in find- 
ing her, for she had so much business in Paris that she 


156 


MONEY. 


seldom reached home before six o’clock. It became nec- 
essary to interrupt her. 

“ Pardon me, Madame, I came for this poor child.” 

“ Precisely, Madame, I am going to show him to you. 
You know that his mother was my cousin. Ah ! I can 
say that I have done my duty. Here are the papers, 
here are the accounts.” 

From a cupboard she took a package of papers, care- 
fully arranged, enclosed in a blue envelope, as an agent 
would have kept them. And she went on inexhaustibly 
regarding the poor Rosalie : undoubtedly she had ended 
by leading a thoroughly disgusting life, going with the 
first comer, coming back drunk and covered with blood 
after escapades lasting a week ; only, it was necessary to 
understand, for she was a good working girl before the 
father of the little one had dislocated her shoulder the 
day when he had taken her on the staircase and with 
her infirmity she could not support herself in a virtuous 
life by selling lemons in the markets. 

“ You see, Madame, I have lent her all this in sums of 
forty sous and a hundred sous. Here are the dates : June 
20, forty sous; June 27, forty sous again; July 3, one 
hundred sous. And see, she must have been sick about 
this time, for here is an endless line of items of one hun- 
dred sous. Then, I had Victor to dress. I have placed 
a V before all the expenditures made for the boy. To 
say nothing of the fact that, when Rosalie died, oh ! very 
filthily, in a disease which was real rottenness, he fell com- 
pletely into my charge. So look, I have called it fifty 
francs a month. That is very reasonable. The father is 
rich ; he can easily give fifty francs a month for his boy. 
In short, it foots up five thousand four hundred and three 
francs; and, adding the amount of the notes, six hundred 
francs, we have a total of six thousand francs. Yes, every- 
thing for six thousafid francs ; there you have it ! ” 

In spite of the nausea which was making her pale, Ma- 
dame Caroline dropped a reflection. 

“ But the notes do not belong to you ; they are the 
child’s property.” 

“ Ah! pardon me,” replied the Méchain, sharply, “ I 


MONEY. 


157 


advanced the money upon them. To help Rosalie, I dis- 
counted them for her. You see my indorsement on the 
back. It is very good of me not to claim interest. You 
will reflect, my good lady, you will not cause a poor woman 
like me to lose a sou.” 

Upon a weary gesture from the good lady, who accept- 
ed the bill, she became calm again. And again she found 
her little piping voice to say : 

“ Now I will have Victor called.” 

But in vain did she send, one after another, three brats 
who were prowling about ; in vain did she plant herself 
on the threshold and make vigorous gestures ; it became 
certain that Victor refused to budge. One of the brats 
even brought back a dirty word for sole reply. Finally 
she started off herself, disappearing as if to lead him back 
by the ear. Then she reappeared alone, having reflected, 
thinking it a good plan undoubtedly to exhibit him in all 
his abominable horror. 

“ If Madame will be good enough to take the trouble 
to follow me.” 

And on the way she furnished details about the City of 
Naples, which her husband inherited from an uncle. This 
husband probably was dead ; no one had ever known him, 
and she never spoke of him except to explain the origin 
of her property. A bad business, which would be the 
death of her, she said, for she found in it more trouble than 
profit, especially now that the prefecture tormented her, 
sending inspectors to require repairs and improvements, 
under the pretext that people were dying like flies in her 
premises. However, she energetically refused to spend a 
sou. Would they not soon require chimney-pieces orna- 
mented with mirrors, in the rooms which she let. for two 
francs a week ! But she did not speak of her own greedi- 
ness in collecting the rents, throwing families into the 
street the minute they failed to pay the two francs in ad- 
vance, doing her own police work, so feared that beggars 
without shelter would not have dared to sleep for nothing 
against one of her walls. 

With shrinking heart, Madame Caroline examined the 
court-yard, a devastated piece of ground, full of marshy 


MONEY. 


158 

hollows, transformed by the accumulated filth into a sink, 
They threw everything into it ; there was neither pit nor 
cesspool ; it was an ever-growing dunghill, poisoning the 
air ; and fortunately it was cold weather, for on warm 
sunny days it generated pestilence. With an anxious foot 
she tried to avoid the heaps of vegetables and bones, while 
casting glances at the indescribable dens on either side, 
with ground floors caving in ; hovels in ruins strengthened 
with the most extraordinary materials. Several were cov- 
ered with simply tarred paper. Many had no door, ex- 
posing to the sight dark cave-like holes, whence came a 
nauseous breath of poverty. Families of eight and ten 
persons were huddled in these charnel-houses, often with- 
out even a bed, men, women, and children in a heap, rot- 
ting each other like decayed fruit, abandoned from early 
childhood to instinctive lust by the most monstrous of 
promiscuities. Accordingly bands of brats, emaciated, 
puny, eaten up by hereditary scrofula and syphilis, con- 
tinually filled the court-yard, poor creatures growing on 
this dunghill like worm-eaten mushrooms, begotten in a 
chance embrace, never precisely knowing their fathers 
When an epidemic of typhoid fever or small-pox arose, it 
swept half the City into the cemetery at one stroke. 

“ I explained to you, Madame,” continued the Méchain, 
“ that Victor has had none too good examples before his 
eyes, and that it is time to think of his education, for he 
is almost in his teens. During his mother’s life, you know, 
he saw things that were not very becoming, inasmuch 
as she did not stand on ceremony when she was drunk. 
She brought men home, and everything went on before 
his eyes. Then, I have never had the time to keep a 
sufficiently watchful eye upon him, because of my business 
in Paris. He played on the fortifications all day long. 
Twice I have had to go to claim him, because he had 
stolen ; oh ! trifles only. And then, as soon as he was able, 
he went with little girls, such was the effect of his poor 
mother’s example. But you will see; at the age of 
twelve he is already a man. Finally, that he might work 
a little, I gave him to Mother Eulalie, a woman who sells 
vegetables from baskets at Montmartre, fie acçom 


MONEY. 


159 

pan i es her to the market, and carries one of her baskets. 
The misfortime is that just now she has abscesses on her 
thigh But here we are, Madame ; be good enough to 
enter. & 

Madame Caroline shrank back. It was one of the 
foulest holes, at the back of the court-yard, behind a real 
barricade of filth ; a hovel crushed into the soil, like a 
heap of plaster sustained by pieces of board. There was 
no window. The door, an old glass door lined with a 
sheet of zinc, had to stand open to let in the light ; and 
the cold entered in a frightful fashion. In the corner she 
saw a mattress, simply thrown upon the beaten ground. 
There was no other recognizable piece of furniture among 
the pell-mell of broken casks, torn-down trellis-work, and 
half-rotten baskets which served as chairs and tables. A 
sticky moisture oozed from the walls. A crack, a fresh 
split in the black ceiling, allowed the rain to fall at the 
very foot of the mattress. And the odor, the odor 
especially, was frightful, human degradation in absolute 
destitution. 

“ Mother Eulalie,” cried the Méchain, “here is a lady 
who wants to help Victor. What ails the brat that he 
doesn’t come when he is called?” 

A shapeless bundle of flesh stirred upon the mattress, 
under a shred of old calico that served as a covering; 
and Madame Caroline distinguished a woman of about 
forty, all naked underneath it for want of a chemise, like 
a half-empty goat’s skin, so soft was she and full of 
wrinkles. The head was not ugly, still fresh, framed in 
little blonde ringlets. 

“ Ah ! ” she moaned, “ let her come in, if she means well 
by us, for this cannot possibly continue! When one 
thinks, Madame, that I haven’t been able to get up for a 
fortnight, on account of these dirty big pimples that make 
holes in my thigh ! Of course I haven’t a sou left. Im- 
possible to continue business. I had two chemises which 
Victor went to sell ; and I really believe that to-night we 
should have died of hunger.” 

Then, raising her voice : 


i6o 


MONEY, 


“ Tis stupid, indeed ! Come out of that, little one ! 
The lady wishes you no harm.” 

And Madame Caroline trembled at seeing a bundle, 
which she had taken for a heap of rags, rise from a 
basket. It was Victor, clad in the remnants of a pair of 
pantaloons and a linen vest, the holes in which revealed 
his nakedness. He was in the full light of the doorway; 
she stood with open mouth, astounded at his extraor- 
dinary resemblance to Saccard. All her doubts vanished ; 
the paternity was undeniable. 

“ I don’t want to be bored with going to school,” he 
declared. 

But she still looked at him, a growing feeling of un- 
easiness taking possession of her. In this resemblance 
that struck her, he was disturbing, this urchin, with one 
half of his face larger than the other, his nose twisted to 
the right, the head looking as if it had been crushed on 
the step where his mother, forced, had conceived him. 
Furthermore he seemed prodigiously developed for his 
age, not very tall, thickset, fully formed at the age of 
twelve, already hairy, like a precocious beast. The bold, 
devouring eyes, the sensual mouth, were those of a man. 
And in this grown-up childhood, with complexion still so 
pure, and in certain spots as delicate as a girl, this virility, 
so suddenly developed, embarrassed and terrified, like a 
monstrosity. 

“ Does school frighten you, then, my little friend?” 
said Madame Caroline at last. “ Yet you would be better 
off there than here. Where do you sleep?” 

With a gesture he pointed to the mattress. 

“ There, with her.” 

Annoyed by this frank reply, Mother Eulalie twisted 
about, in search of an explanation. 

“ I had made him a bed with a little mattress; and then 
it had to be sold. People sleep as they can, you know, 
when they have nothing left.” 

The Méchain thought best to intervene, although she 
was not ignorant of anything that had happened. 

“All the same, it isn’t proper, Eulalie, And you, you 


MONEY. 


l6l 


scamp, you might have come to sleep at my house, in- 
stead of sleeping with her.” 

But Victor planted himself on his short, stout legs, with 
an air of pride in his male precocity. 

“ Why, then ? She is my wife ! ” 

Then Mother Eulalie, wallowing in her soft flesh, de- 
cided to laugh, trying to conceal the abomination by re- 
ferring to it jestingly. And her words revealed a tender 
admiration. 

“ Oh ! surely I wouldn’t trust my daughter with him, if 
I had one. He is a real little man.” 

Madame Caroline shuddered. Her heart failed her, in 
a frightful attack of nausea. What ! this boy of twelve, 
this little monster, with this woman of forty, ravaged and 
diseased, on this filthy mattress, amid these potsherds 
and this stench! Ah! poverty, that destroys and rots 
everything. 

She left twenty francs, hurried away, returned to seek 
refuge in the house of the proprietress, in order to make 
up her mind and come to a definite understanding with 
the latter. At sight of such abandonment an idea had 
suggested itself to her, — the Work of Labor : had it not 
been expressly created for such falls, the miserable chil- 
dren of the gutter whom they were trying to regenerate 
by hygiene and a trade ? As quickly as possible Victor 
must be taken from this base mud, placed there, and have 
a new existence given him. The thought left her trem- 
bling. And into this decision there entered a woman’s 
delicacy : to say nothing yet to Saccard, to wait until the 
monster should be cleaned a little before exhibiting him ; 
for this frightful offspring gave her a feeling of something 
like shame for the father, she suffered from the discredit 
he would bring upon him. A few months undoubtedly 
would suffice ; then she would speak, happy over her good 
work. 

It was difficult to make the Méchain understand. 

“ My God ! Madame, as you please. Only I want my 
six thousand francs directly. Victor shall not stir from 
my house until I have my six thousand francs.” 

This unreasonableness filled Madame Caroline with 


MONEY. 


162 

despair. She had not that sum, and of course did not 
want to ask the father for it. In vain she discussed and 
pleaded. 

*• No, no ! If I had not my security, I might search 
my pockets. I know that ! ” 

At last, seeing that the sum was large and that she 
would get nothing, she made an abatement. 

“Well, give me two thousand francs at once. I will 
wait for the rest.” 

But Madame Caroline’s embarrassment remained the 
same, and she was asking herself where to get these two 
thousand francs, when the idea struck her of applying to 
Maxime. She did not stop to discuss it. He surely 
would consent for the sake of being in the secret ; he 
would not refuse to advance this small sum, which his 
father certainly would repay. And she went away, saying 
that she would return the next day to take Victor. 

It was only five o’clock ; she was in such a fever to 
finish the matter that, on getting into her cab, she gave 
the driver Maxime’s address, Avenue de l’Impératrice. 
When she arrived, the valet de chambre told her that 
Monsieur was engaged at his toilet, but that he would 
announce her just the same. 

For a moment she stifled in the reception-room where 
she waited/ The house was a small private residence 
furnished with exquisite refinement of luxury and com- 
fort. Hangings and carpets had been lavished upon it ; 
and the warm silence of the rooms exhaled a delicate 
odor of ambergris. It was pretty, soft, and discreet, al- 
though giving no sign of woman ; for the young widower, 
made rich by the death of his wife, had arranged his life 
for the sole worship of himself, closing his door, like an 
experienced bachelor, against any new distribution. This 
enjoyment of life, which he owed to a woman, he did not 
intend that another woman should spoil for him. Dis- 
enchanted with vice, he continued to indulge in it only 
as a dessert forbidden him because of his deplorable 
stomach. He had long since abandoned his idea of en- 
tering the Council of State ; he no longer even raced, 
satiated with horses a? with women. And he lived alone, 


MONEY. !Ô3 

idle, perfectly happy, consuming his fortune with art and 
precaution, showing the ferocity of a perverse and sup- 
ported dude turned serious. 

If Madame will follow me,” the valet returned to say 
“ Monsieur will receive her in his room directly.” 

Madame Caroline was on familiar terms with Maxime 
now that he saw her installed as a faithful housekeeper 
whenever he went to his father’s to dine. On entering 
the room, she found the curtains drawn, six candles burn- 
ing on the mantel and on a stand, lighting with a quiet 
flame this nest of down and silk, the too effeminate 
chamber of a beautiful lady for sale, with its deep seats 
and immense bed, as soft as feathers. It was the favorite 
room, where he had exhausted the delicacies, furniture 
and precious bric-a-brac, marvels of the last century, 
blended and lost in the most delightful confusion of 
stuffs imaginable. 

But the door leading to the toilet-room was wide open, 
and he appeared, saying : 

“ What then, what has happened ? Papa isn’t dead ? ” 

On leaving the bath, he had just slipped on an elegant 
costume of white flannel, his skin cool and balmy, with 
his pretty head like a girl’s, already fatigued, his eyes blue 
and bright over the emptiness of his brain. Through the 
door could still be heard the dripping from one of the 
faucets of the bath, a strong perfume of some flower 
mingling with the softness of the warm water. 

“ No, no ; it is not so serious,” she answered, embar- 
rassed by the quietly jesting tone of the question. “ And 
yet what I have to say to you embarrasses me a little. 
You will excuse me for thus falling in upon you.” 

“ It is true, I dine in the city, but I have time enough 
to dress. Tell me, what is it ? ” 

He waited, and now she hesitated, stammered, struck 
by this great luxury, by this pleasure-giving refinement, 
which she perceived about her. Cowardice seized her; 
she could not find courage to tell the whole story, Was 
it possible that existence, so stern to the child of chance, 
down there, in the sink of the City of Naples, had shown 
itself so prodigal to this man, amid this skilfully-disposed 


164 


MONEY. 


wealth? So much base nastiness, hunger, and filth inevi- 
table on the one hand, and on the other such a refinement 
of the exquisite, abundance, beautiful life ! Could money, 
then, be education, health, intelligence ? And if the same 
human mud remained beneath, did not all civilization con- 
sist in the superiority of feeling good and living well ? 

“ My God ! such a story ! I believe that I do right to 
tell it to you. For that matter, I am forced to it, I need 
you.” 

Maxime listened to her, at first standing ; then he sat 
down in front of her, his legs broken by the surprise. And 
when she had finished, he exclaimed : 

“ What ! What ! I am not the only son ! A frightful 
little brother falls on me from the sky, without so much 
as shouting : ‘ Look out ’ ! ” 

She thought he spoke from an interested motive, and 
made an allusion to the question of inheritance. 

“ Oh ! inheritance from Papa ! ” 

And he made a gesture of ironical carelessness, which 
she did not understand. What! What did he mean? 
Did he not believe in the great qualities, the certain for- 
tune, of his father? 

“ No, no, I am all right, I need nobody. But really, 
this is such a queer development that I cannot help 
laughing at it.” 

And he did laugh, but in a vexed, anxious, hollow 
fashion, thinking only of himself, not yet having had 
time to consider what good or harm this event might 
bring him. He felt himself apart; he dropped a phrase 
in which he brutally expressed his entire nature. 

“ After all, what do I care ? ” 

Having risen, he passed into the toilet-room, and came 
back directly with a polisher made of shell, with which he 
gently rubbed his nails. 

“And what are you going to do with your monster? 
He cannot be put in the Bastille like the Man in the Iron 
Mask.” 

She then spoke of the Méchain’s bills, explained her 
idea of placing Victor in the Work of Labor, and asked 
him for the two thousand francs. 


MONEY. 


165 

“ I do not wish your father to know of the matter 
yet ; you are the only person to whom I can apply ; you 
must make this advance.” 

But he flatly refused. 

“To Papa, never in my life ! not a sou ! Listen, it is 
an oath ! Though Papa should need a sou to cross a 
bridge, I would not lend it to him. Understand ! there 
are some stupidities that are too stupid ; I do not wish to 
be ridiculous.” 

Again she looked at him, disturbed by his ugly insinu- 
ations. 

In this moment of excitement she had neither the wish 
nor the time to make him talk. 

“And to me,” she replied abruptly, “will you lend 
them to me, these two thousand francs ? ” 

“ To you, to you.” . . . 

He continued to polish his nails with a light, pretty 
movement, while examining her with his clear eyes, which 
searched women to their heart’s blood. 

“To you, yes, I am willing. You are one of the gul- 
lible, you will pay me.” 

Then, when he had taken the two notes from a little 
desk and handed them to her, he took her hands and held 
them for a moment in his own, with an air of friendly 
gayety, like a step-son who has sympathy for his step- 
mother. 

“ You entertain illusions regarding Papa, you do. Oh ! 
do not defend yourself, I do not inquire into your affairs. 
Women are so queer ; it sometimes amuses them to be 
devoted ; and of course they are quite right in taking 
their pleasure where they find it. No matter, if some day 
you are ill rewarded, come and see me, we will talk.” 

When Madame Caroline was once more in her cab, 
still stifling from the soft warmth of the little residence, 
from the heliotrope perfume which had penetrated her 
garments, she was shuddering as if leaving a suspicious 
place, frightened also by this reticence, by these jests of 
the son regarding the father, which aggravated her sus- 
picion of an unfavorable past. But she did not wish to 
know anything; she had the money; she quieted herself 


MONEY. 


1 66 

in planning the work of the morrow so that by night the 
child should be saved from his vice. 

Accordingly, in the morning she had to start out, for 
there were all sorts of formalities to be fulfilled, in order 
to be certain that her protégé would be received at the 
Work of Labor. However, her position as secretary of 
the committee of superintendence, which the founder, 
the Princess d’Orviedo, had composed of ten society 
ladies, facilitated the execution of these formalities ; and 
in the afternoon she had only to go to the City of Naples 
after Victor. She took suitable garments with her, and 
was not really without anxiety as to the resistance that 
the boy might offer, he who would not listen to the idea 
of school. But the Méchain, to whom she had sent a 
despatch and who was waiting for her, informed her on 
the threshold of a piece of news, by which she herself had 
been upset : suddenly in the night Mother Eulalie had 
died, from some cause which the doctor had been unable 
to precisely fix, a congestion perhaps, some ravage of the 
corrupted blood ; and the frightful part was that the boy, 
lying beside her, had not noticed the death in the dark- 
ness, until he felt the body growing cold against his own. 
He had finished his night in the house of the proprietress, 
stupefied by this tragedy, worked upon by a secret fear, 
so that he consented to dress and seemed satisfied with 
the idea of living in a house with a beautiful garden. 
There was nothing to hold him any longer, since the 
grosse , as he said, was going to rot in the grave. 

Meanwhile the Méchain, in writing her receipt for the 
two thousand francs, laid down her conditions. 

“ It is agreed, isn’t it? you will complete the six thou- 
sand in one payment, six months from now. Otherwise, 
I shall apply to Monsieur Saccard.” 

“But,” said Madame Caroline, “you will be paid by 
Monsieur Saccard himself. To-day I am his substitute; 
that is all.” 

There was no tenderness in the farewells of Victor and 
his old cousin : a kiss upon the hair, a haste of the little 
one to get into the carriage, while the Méchain, scolded 
by Busch for having consented to receive only an instal- 


MONEY. 


167 


ment, continued to secretly chew her annoyance at seeing 
her security thus escape her. 

“ Now, Madame, be honest with me ; otherwise, I 
swear to you that I will find a way to make you repent.” 

From the City of Naples to the Work of Labor, on 
the Boulevard Bineau, Madame Caroline could get only 
monosyllables out of Victor, whose glittering eyes de- 
voured the route, the broad avenues, the passers-by^ and 
the rich houses. , He did not know how to write, could 
scarcely read, having always run away from school to 
play upon the fortifications ; and his face, that of a child 
matured too quickly, revealed only the exasperated appe- 
tites of his race, a haste to enjoy, and enjoy violently, 
aggravated by the compost of misery and abominable 
examples in which he had grown up. On the Boulevard 
Bineau, his eyes, like a young wild beast’s, glowed only 
the more when, leaving the carriage, he crossed the cen- 
tral court-yard, bounded on either side by the boys’ build- 
ing and that of the girls. Already he had given a search- 
ing look at the vast yards planted with beautiful trees, 
the well-equipped kitchens, whose open windows exhaled 
the odors of meat, the dinmg-halls decorated with marble, 
as long and as high as the naves of a chapel, all this royal 
luxury which the Prinçqss, bent upon her restitutions, 
desired to give to the poor. Then, having reached the 
back, in the main building occupied by the administration, 
led from office to office in order to be admitted with the 
customary formalities, he listened to the sound of his new 
shoes upon the immense corridors, the broad stairways, 
and the private entrances flooded with air and light, all 
decorated palatially. His nostrils quivered; all this was 
to be his. 

But, as Madame Caroline, having descended again to 
the ground floor for a signature to a document, led him 
through a new passage-way, she stopped him in front of a 
glass-door, and he could see a shop, where boys of his own 
age, standing at benches, were learning wood-carving. 

“ You see, my little friend,” said she, “ they work here, 
because it is necessary to work, if one wishes to be well 
and happy. At night there are classes, and I expect you 


MONEY. 


1 68 

to be good and study well. You are going to decide 
your own future, a future such as you have never dreamed 
of.” 

A dark fold had ruffled Victor’s brow. He did not an- 
swer, and his eyes of a young wolf now cast upon this 
luxury, so lavishly outspread, only the oblique glances of 
an envious bandit : to have all this, but without doing any- 
thing ; to conquer it, to feast upon it by a force of claws 
and teeth. Thenceforth he was there only as a rebel, 
only as a prisoner dreaming of robbery and escape. 

“ Now all is settled,” resumed Madame Caroline. “ We 
will go up to the bath-room.” 

It was the custom of each new inmate to take a bath 
upon entering the institution ; and the baths were up- 
stairs, in rooms adjoining the infirmary which itself, 
composed of two little dormitories, one for the boys and 
the other for the girls, was next to the linen-room. Six 
Sisters of Charity presided here, in this superb linen-room, 
of varnished maple, with three tiers of deep drawers, and 
in this model infirmary, of stainless brightness and white- 
ness, as cheerful and clean as health. Often, too, the ladies 
of the committee of superintendence came to spend an 
hour here in the afternoon, less to supervise than to give 
the work the support of their devotion. 

And just at this time the Countess de Beauvilliers hap- 
pened to be there with her daughter Alice, in the hall 
that separated the two infirmaries. Often she brought 
her thus to direct her attention from herself, by giving 
her the pleasure of charity. On this occasion Alice was 
helping one of the sisters to prepare slices of bread and 
jam for two little convalescents, who had been given per- 
mission to taste this delicacy. 

“Ah ! ” said the Countess, at sight of Victor, who had 
just been given a seat while his bath was being prepared, 
“ here is a new one.” 

Usually she stood on ceremony in her attitude toward 
Madame Caroline, saluting her only with an inclination 
of the head, without ever speaking a word, from fear per- 
haps of having to form neighborly relations with hen 
But this boy whom she brought, and the air of active 


MONEY. 


69 


kindness with which she cared for him, touched her un- 
doubtedly, and drew her from her reserve. And they 
talked in undertones. 

“ If you knew, Madame, from what a hell I have just 
taken him ! I recommend him to your kindness, as I 
have recommended him to all these ladies and to all these 
gentlemen.” 

“ Has he parents? Do you know them ? ” 

“ No, his mother is dead. He has only me.” 

“ Poor boy! Ah! what poverty ! ” 

Meanwhile Victor had been steadily looking at the 
bread and jam. His eyes were burning with ferocious 
greed ; and from the jam which the knife spread, they 
wandered to Alice’s delicate white hands, to her too 
slender neck, to her whole person of a sickly virgin grow- 
ing thin in the vain waiting for marriage. If he were 
alone with her, with a good butt of his head in her belly, 
how he would have sent her rolling against the wall, to 
take her tarts away from her ! But the young girl had 
noticed his gluttonous looks ; and, having consulted the 
nun with a glance, she said : 

“ Are you hungry, my little friend ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And you do not detest jam ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ Then you would like it, if I were to make you two 
tarts to eat when you come from the bath ? ” 

“"Yes.” 

“ A great deal of jam to a very little bread, that is what 
you want, isn’t it?” 

“ Yes.” 

She laughed and joked, but he sat serious and open- 
mouthed, with his devouring eyes eating her, her and her 
good things. 

At that moment a joyful shout, a violent uproar, rose 
from the boys’ yard, where the four o’clock recess was 
beginning. The shops were emptying ; the inmates had 
half an hour to lunch and stretch their legs. 

“ You see,” resumed Madame Caroline, taking him to a 


170 


MONEY. 


window, “ though they work here, they play also. Do 
you like to work?’' 

« No.” 

“ But you like to play?” 

« Yes.” 

“ Well, if you want to play, you will have to work. 
All that will arrange itself ; you will be reasonable, I am 
sure.” 

He did not answer. A flame of pleasure had heated 
up his face at sight of his released comrades jumping and 
shouting ; and his looks came back to his tarts, which the 
young girl had finished and laid upon a plate. Yes! the 
liberty of enjoyment, all the time, he wanted nothing else. 
H is bath was ready, and they took him away. 

“ There is a little gentleman who will not be easily man- 
aged, I think,” said the nun, gently. “ I distrust them 
when they have not a straight face.” 

“Yet he isn’t ugly,” murmured Alice, “ and one would 
think he was eighteen years old to see him look at you.” 

“ Yes,” concluded Madame Caroline, with a slight 
shudder, “ he is very advanced for his age.” 

And, before going away, these ladies wished to give 
themselves the pleasure of seeing the little convalescents 
eat their tarts. One especially was very interesting, a 
little blonde of ten years, with already knowing eyes, an 
air of a woman, the precocious and sickly flesh of the Pa- 
risian suburbs. Hers, moreover, was the usual story : a 
drunken father, who brought home his mistresses picked 
up on the sidewalk, and who had just disappeared with 
one of them ; a mother who had taken another man, then 
another, and had taken to drinking herself ; and the little 
one within, beaten by all these men, when they did not 
try to violate her. One morning the mother had had to 
take her from the arms of a mason, brought home by her 
the night before. Yet they permitted this wretched 
mother to come to see her child, for she herself had begged 
them to take her away, having kept in her degradation an 
ardent maternal love. And she happened to be there at 
this very time, a thin and yellow woman, shattered, with 
eyelids burned with tears, sitting beside the white bed. 


MONEY. 


171 


where her little girl, very clean, propped up against the 
pillows, was gracefully eating her tarts. 

She recognized Madame Caroline, having been at Sac- 
card's for help. 

“ Ah ! Madame, here again is my poor Madeleine saved 
once more. She has all our misfortune in her blood, you 
see, and the doctor told me she wouldn’t live, if she con- 
tinued to be knocked about at home. Whereas here she 
has meat and wine, and then, she rests, she is quiet. I 
pray you, Madame, tell that good gentleman that I do 
not live an hour of my life without blessing him.” 

A sob choked her ; her heart was melting with grati- 
tude. It was of Saccard that she spoke, for she knew 
only him, like most of the parents who had children at 
the Work of Labor. The Princess d’Orviedo did not ap- 
pear, whereas he had long been lavish of his efforts, peo- 
pling the Work, gathering* up all the wretches from the 
gutter in order to see this charitable machine, partly his 
own creation, operate more quickly, becoming enthusiastic 
moreover as usual, distributing five-franc pieces from his 
own pocket to the sad families whose little ones he saved. 
And to all these miserable people he remained the one 
and true good God. 

“You will tell him, will you not, Madame, that there 
is somewhere a poor woman who prays for him ? Oh ! 
not that I have religion, I do not wish to lie, I have never 
been a hypocrite. No, between the churches and us all 
is over, because we do not even think of them any more ; 
it is of no use to waste one’s time in them. But that 
doesn’t alter the fact just the same that there’s something 
above us ; and then it’s a relief, when some one has been 
good, to call down upon him the blessings of heaven.” 

Her tears began to flow, streaming down her withered 
cheeks. 

“ Listen to me, Madeleine, listen.” 

The little girl, so pale in her snowy chemise, and lick- 
ing the jam from her tart with the tip of her greedy 
tongue, with eyes so full of happiness, raised her head 
and became attentive, without breaking off her feast. 

“ Every evening, before going to sleep in your bed, you 


MONEY. 


î/2 

will join your hands like this, and you will say: ‘My 
God, reward Monsieur Saccard for his kindness, let him 
live long and be happy.’ You hear, do you promise 
me?” 

“ Yes, Mamma.” 

For a few weeks following Madame Caroline lived in 
great moral agitation. She no longer had any clear ideas 
regarding Saccard. The story of Victor’s tyrth and 
abandonment, the poor Rosalie seized so violently upon 
a staircase that she had been left infirm, and the notes 
signed and unpaid, and the poor orphan reared in the 
mud, — all this lamentable past made her heartsick. She 
put aside the images of this past, just as she had refused 
to provoke Maxime’s indiscretions : certainly there were 
old vices which frightened her, and which would cause 
her too much sorrow. Then, there was this woman in 
tears, joining her little girl’s hands, making her pray for 
this same man ; there was Saccard adored as the God of 
goodness, and really good, and having actually saved 
souls, in his enthusiastic activity of a brewer of business, 
who rose to virtue when the business was beautiful. 
Consequently she reached the point where she was un- 
willing to judge him, saying to herself, in order to quiet 
her conscience of an educated woman who has read and 
thought too much, that in him, as in all men, there was 
the worse and the better. 

Nevertheless she had just experienced a secret revival 
of shame at the thought that she had been his. That al- 
ways stupefied her ; she quieted herself by swearing that 
it was ended, that this momentary surprise could not be 
repeated. And three months rolled away during which 
she went twice a week to see Victor ; and one evening she 
found herself again in Saccard’s arms, definitively his, 
suffering the establishment of regular relations. What, 
then, was taking place within her? Had she curiosity 
like other people? Had these disturbing loves of former 
days, stirred up by her, given her a sensual desire to know ? 
Or rather, was it simply that the child had become the 
bond, the inevitable union between him, the father, and 
her, the mother by chance and adoption? Yes, it must 


MONEY. 


173 


be only a sentimental perversion. In her great sorrow at 
being without a child, it certainly had moved her, to the 
point of ruining her will, to be occupied with the care of 
the son of this man, amid such poignant circumstances. 
After each visit to the boy she gave herself more freely, 
and maternity lay at the bottom of her abandonment. 
Moreover, she was a woman of clear good sense ; she ac- 
cepted the facts of life, without exhausting herself in an 
attempt to explain their thousand complex causes. To 
her this unravelling of heart and brain, this refined an- 
alysis of hairs split into four, was only a distraction of 
unoccupied worldlings, without a house to keep, without 
a child to love, intellectual farceuses who seek excuses 
for their falls, who mask with their science of the soul the 
appetites of the flesh, common to duchesses and barmaids. 
She, with her too vast erudition, who had wasted her time 
formerly in burning to know the vast world and in taking 
part in the quarrels of philosophers, had come back from 
this with great disdain for those psychological recreations 
which are taking the place of the piano and embroidery, 
and of which she said laughingly that they have de- 
bauched more women than they have reclaimed. Ac- 
cordingly, on the days when gaps appeared in her, when 
she felt a fracture of her free will, she preferred to have 
the courage to accept the fact, after having established 
it ; and she counted on the labor of life to efface the 
fault, to repair the evil, as the ever-rising sap closes the 
cut in the heart of an oak, restoring the wood and the 
bark. If she was now Saccard’s, without having wished 
it, without being certain that she loved him or even es- 
teemed him, she recovered from this fall by judging him 
not unworthy of her, seduced by his qualities of a man 
of action, by his energy in overcoming, thinking him 
good and useful to others. Her first shame had left her, 
in this need that we feel of purifying our faults, and in 
fact nothing was more natural or more tranquil than their 
liaison : a household of reason simply, he happy at hav- 
ing her, in the evening, when he did not go out, she al- 
most maternal, with a quieting affection, in her keen in- 
telligence and uprightness. And really, to this freebooter 


174 


MONEY. 


of the Parisian pavements, burned and tanned in all the 
financial felonies, it was an unmerited piece of luck, a re- 
ward stolen like the rest, to have as his own this adorable 
woman, so young and so healthy at thirty-six under the 
snow of her thick white hair, showing a good sense so 
valiant and a prudence so human in her faith in life, such 
as it is, in spite of the mud borne on by the torrent. 

Months passed away, and it must be said that Madame 
Caroline found Saccard very energetic and very prudent 
during all these painful beginningsof the Universal Bank. 
Her suspicions of doubtful negotiations, her fears lest he 
might compromise herself and her brother, disappeared 
entirely at seeing him continually struggling with diffi- 
culties, expending himself from morning till night to as- 
sure the perfect operation of this immense new mechan- 
ism, whose wheels ground almost to bursting ; and she 
had a feeling of gratitude toward him, she admired him. 
The Universal, in fact, did not progress as he had hoped, 
for it had against it the secret hostility of the high bank : 
evil reports were current, obstacles arose, forcing the cap- 
ital to remain idle, not permitting the great and fruitful 
attempts. Accordingly he made a virtue of this slow 
progress, to which he was reduced, advancing only step 
by step on solid ground, on the look-out for quagmires, 
too much occupied in avoiding a fall to dare to launch out 
into hazardous speculations. He champed with impa- 
tience, stamping like a race-horse reduced to the ordinary 
driving trot ; but never were the beginnings of a house of 
credit more honorable or more correct ; and the Bourse 
talked of it, in astonishment. 

It was in this way that they reached the period of the 
first stockholders’ meeting. It had been fixed for April 
25. On the twentieth Hamelin sailed from the Orient, 
expressly to preside, hastily summoned by Saccard, who 
was stifling in his too restricted quarters. He brought 
with him, moreover, excellent news : the treaties for the 
formation of the General Company of United Steamers 
were concluded, and, on the other hand, he had in his 
pocket the grants assuring to a French company the ex- 
ploitation of the Carmel silver mines ; to say nothing of 


MONEY. ' 


i/5 


the Turkish National Bank, of which he had just laid the 
foundations at Constantinople, and which would be a veri- 
table branch of the Universal. As for the great question 
of the railroads in Asia Minor, it was not ripe ; that must 
be reserved ; for the rest, he must return to the Orient, 
on the day after the meeting, to continue his studies. 
Saccard, delighted, had a long conversation with him, at 
which Madame Caroline was present, and he easily per- 
suaded them that an increase of capital stock was abso- 
lutely necessary, if they wished to undertake these enter- 
prises. Already the large stockholders, Daigremont, 
Huret, Sédille, Kolb, having been consulted, had approved 
this increase ; so that in two days the proposition could 
be studied and presented to the board of directors the 
day before the stockholders’ meeting. 

This special directors’ meeting was solemn ; all the 
members were present, in the sombre room, given a green- 
ish tinge by the neighborhood of the tall trees belonging 
to the Hôtel Beauvilliers. Ordinarily there were two 
meetings a month : the petty council on the fifteenth, the 
most important, at which appeared only the real leaders, 
the managers of the business ; and the grand council on 
the thirtieth, the meeting for show, which all attended, 
the silent and the ornamental, to approve the work pre- 
pared in advance and to give signatures. On this occasion 
the Marquis de Bohain, with his aristocratic little head, 
arrived among the first, bringing with him, in his grand 
air of fatigue, the approval of the entire French nobility. 
And the Viscount de Robin-Chagot, the mild and dull 
vice-president, was charged with looking out for the direc- 
tors who were not familiar with the progress of events, 
taking them aside, and briefly communicating to them 
the orders of the manager, the real master. It was an 
understood thing ; all promised to obey, with an inclina- 
tion of the head. 

At last the meeting began. Hamelin made known to 
the board the report which he was to read before the 
stockholders’ meeting. This was the huge task upon 
which Saccard had long been at work, and which he had 
just drafted in two days, supplemented with notes 


1 76 


MONEY. 


brought by the engineer, to which he listened modestly, 
with an air of keen interest, as if he had never heard a 
single word. I11 the first place the report spoke of the 
business done by the Universal Bank since its foundation : 
it was all good, little every-day affairs, realized from one 
day to the next, the commonplace routine of houses of 
credit. Moreover, sufficiently large profits were an- 
nounced from the Mexican loan, which had just been 
launched the previous month, after the departure of the 
Emperor Maximilian for Mexico : a loan with wild pre- 
miums, a mess in which Saccard mortally regretted his 
inability to wade more deeply from want of money. All 
this was ordinary, but they had lived. For the first bud- 
get, covering only three months, from the fifth of October, 
the date of the foundation, to the thirty-first of December, 
the profits amounted to only four hundred and some 
thousand francs, which had permitted them to liquidate 
one fourth of the expenses of organization, to pay the 
stockholders their five per cent., and to carry ten per cent, 
to the surplus ; furthermore, the directors had taken the 
ten per cent, allowed them by the by-laws, and there re- 
mained a sum of about sixty-eight thousand francs, which 
they had carried forward to the next budget. Only there 
had been no dividend. Nothing at the same time more 
ordinary or more honorable. It was the same with the 
quotations of the Universal’s stock at the Bourse ; it had 
slowly risen from five hundred to six hundred francs, not 
suddenly, but in a normal fashion, like the quotations of 
the stock of any respectable bank ; and, for two months, 
it had remained stationary, having no reason for rising 
further, in the little daily round in which the new-born 
bank seemed to have gone to sleep. 

Then the report passed on to the future, and here there 
was a sudden enlargement, the vast horizon opening of a 
whole series of grand enterprises. It insisted especially 
upon the General Company of United Steamers, whose 
stock the Universal was to issue : a company with a 
capital of fifty millions, which would monopolize the entire 
transportation of the Mediterranean, and in which would 
be syndicated the two great rival companies, the Phocæan 


MONEY. 


1 77 

5 myrna ’ and Trebizond, by way of 
Piraeus and the Dardanelles, and the Maritime Society 

n° r r^ eXa r n i na ’ hy , way of Messir >a and Syria, to say 
s ™ aIler houses which would enter into the 
^yndicate, Combarel & Co., for Algeria and Tunis the 
widow Henri Liotard, for Algeria also, by way of Spain 

Na d nl^ 0r0C ^°fl, and - t - he h^rraud-Giraud Brothers, for Italy 
Naples, and the cities of the Adriatic, by way of Civita 
Vecchia. They would conquer the entire Mediterranean 
• a I* a sln s|f company of these societies and these 
rival houses which were killing each other. Thanks to 
centralized capital, they would build typical steamers un- 

SSS? ln m eed and comfort ’ the y would multiply 
trips, they would create new stations, they would make the 

Onent a suburb of Marseilles. And wh£ importance tîe 

?o°uTd Pa e n st h,° U Ù d i aSSUme w h en - Suez Canal finished it 

Taoan t nJ i'-T *° the Indies ’ Tonc l uin > China, and 
Japan . Never did an enterprise present itself larger or 

toTh? T CO ? W I- T , he o n W ,° uld c0me the support S give„ 
to the Turkish National Bank, regarding which the report 

furnished long and technical details, demonstrating P its 
immovable solidity; and it finished this exhibit of future 
operations with the announcement that the Universal 
would also take under its patronage the Carmel Silver- 
Mining Company, a French society to be founded with 
a capital of twenty millions. Analyses of specimens of 
the mineral, made by chemists, indicated a considerable 
proportion of silver. But, more still than science, the 
ancient poesy of the holy places would make this money 
stream in a miraculous rain, a divine dazzle which Saccard 
had put at the end of a phrase, with which he was verv 
content. y 

Finally, after these promises of a glorious future, the 
report concluded by recommending the increase of capital. 

It should be doubled, raised from twenty-five millions to 
fifty. The system of issue adopted was the simplest in 
the world, that all brains might easily understand it • fifty 
thousand new shares should be created and reserved share 
for share for the holders of the fifty thousand original 
shares ; sq that there would be no public subscription 


i 7 8 


MONEY. 


even. Only, these new shares should be issued at five 
hundred and twenty francs, the premium of twenty francs, 
forming a total of a million, to be carried to the surplus. 
It was just and prudent to levy this little tax upon the 
stockholders, since it was to their advantage. Moreover, 
only a fourth of the value of the stock was demandable, 
plus the premium. 

When Hamelin stopped reading, a hum of approval ran 
around the room. It was perfect ; not an observation to 
be made. Throughout the reading, Daigremont, very much 
interested in a careful examination of his finger-nails, had 
smiled over vague thoughts; the deputy Huret, thrown 
back in his arm-chair, with eyes closed, half slept, think- 
ing himself in the Chamber; while Kolb, the banker, 
tranquilly and without concealment, had devoted him- 
self to a long calculation, on the few sheets of paper 
which he, like each of the other directors, had in front of 
him. Sédille, however, always anxious and distrustful, 
wished to ask a question : what would become of the 
shares abandoned by those of the stockholders who should 
not care to avail themselves of their right ? Would the 
Society keep them on its own account, which was illegiti- 
mate, since the legal declaration could not be made at 
the notary’s until the entire capital had been subscribed? 
And, if it was to get rid of them, to whom and how did it 
expect to part with them ? But, at the first words of the 
silk manufacturer, the Marquis de Bohain, seeing Saccard’s 
impatience, cut short his remarks by saying, with his 
grand air of a noble, that the board left these details to 
its president and to the manager, both so competent and 
so devoted. And nothing remained but the congratu- 
lations ; the meeting arose, amid the delight of all. 

The next day the stockholders’ meeting was the occa- 
sion of manifestations that were really touching. It was 
held again in the hall in the Rue Blanche, where a man- 
ager of public balls had made a failure ; and, before the 
arrival of the president, in the already well-filled hall, the 
most favorable reports were current, one especially which 
they whispered in each other’s ears : violently attacked 
by the growing opposition, Rougon, the minister, the 


MONEY. 


179 


brother 01 the manager, was disposed to favor the Uni- 
versal, if the Society’s newspaper, /’ Espérance, a former 
Catholic organ, would defend the government. A deputy 
of the Left had just launched the terrible cry : “ The 
Second of December is a crime ! ” which had resounded 
from one end of France to the other, like a reawakening 
of the public conscience. It was necessary to answer by 
great acts; the approaching Universal Exposition would 
increase business ten-fold ; they were going to make much 
in Mexico and elsewhere, in the triumph of the empire at 
its zenith. And, among a little group of stockholders, 
indoctrinated by Jantrou and Sabatani, they laughed 
heartily at another deputy who, at the time of the dis- 
cussion on the army, had had the extraordinary fancy of 
trying to establish in Françe the Prussian system of re- 
cruiting. The Chamber had been much amused thereat : 
must the terror of Prussia, then, so trouble certain brains, 
after the. Denmark affair and under the influence of the 
secret resentment cherished against us by Italy, since 
Solferino ! But the noise of private conversation, the 
great hum of the hall, suddenly stopped when Hamelin 
and the officials appeared. Even more modest than in 
the directors’ room, Saccard effaced himself, lost in the 
midst of the crowd ; and he contented himself with giving 
the signal for the applause, approving the report which 
submitted to the meeting the accounts of the first budget, 
reviewed and accepted by the auditors, Lavignière and 
Rousseau, and which proposed the doubling of the capital. 
The meeting alone was competent to authorize this in- 
crease, upon which, moreover, it decided with enthusiasm, 
absolutely intoxicated by the millions of the General 
Company of United Steamers and the Turkish National 
Bank, recognizing the necessity of making the capital 
proportionate to the importance which the Universal was 
to assume. As for the Carmel silver mines, they were 
welcomed with a religious thrill. And when the stock- 
holders separated, after voting thanks to the president, 
the manager, and the directors, all were dreaming of 
Carmel, of this miraculous rain of money, falling from the 
holy places, amid a halo of glory. 


i8o 


MONEY. 


Two days later, Hamelin and Saccard, accompanied 
this time by the vice-president, the Viscount de Robin- 
Chagot, returned to the office of the notary, Lelorrain, in 
the Rue Sainte-Anne, to declare the increase of capital, 
which, they affirmed, had been wholly subscribed. The 
truth was that about three thousand shares, refused by 
the original stockholders, to whom they belonged by right, 
were left in the hands of the Society, which passed them 
again to the Sabatani account, by a trick of hand-writing. 
It was the old irregularity aggravated, the system which 
consisted in concealing in the vaults of the Universal a 
certain quantity of its own shares, a sort of fighting reserve, 
which would enable it to speculate, to throw itself, if need 
be, into the thick of the battle of the Bourse. 

Hamelin, moreover, though disapproving these illegal 
tactics, had finally given over the management of the 
financial operations entirely to Saccard ; and there had 
been a conversation on that subject between them and 
Madame Caroline, relating only to the five hundred shares 
which he had forced them to take at the time of the first 
issue, and which the second, of course, had just doubled : 
a thousand shares in all, representing, for the payment of 
the fourth and the premium, a sum of one hundred and 
thirty-five thousand francs, which the brother and sister 
absolutely insisted on paying, an unexpected inheritance 
of about three hundred thousand francs having fallen to 
them from an aunt, who had died ten days after her only 
son, both carried away by the same fever. Saccard 
allowed them to pay, without explaining the manner in 
which he expected to release his own shares. 

“ Ah ! this inheritance,” said Madame Caroline, laugh- 
ing, “ is the first piece of luck that has come to us. I 
really believe that you bring us happiness. My brother 
with his salary of thirty thousand francs, his considerable 
travelling expenses, and all this gold that falls upon us, 
undoubtedly because we are no longer in need of it. * . . 
Here we are, rich ! ” 

She looked at Saccard, with her gratitude of a good 
heart, conquered thenceforth, confiding in him, losing every 
da y her clear-sightedness, in the growing tenderness with 


MONEY. 


i8i 

which he inspired her. Then, carried away nevertheless 
by her gay frankness, she continued : 

No matter ! if I had made this money, you may be 
sure that I should not risk it in your enterprises. But an 
aunt whom we have scarcely known, money of which we 
had never dreamed, money, in short, found in the earth, 
something which does not seem to me exactly honest and 
of which I am a little ashamed. . . . You understand, I 
d°« n0t S . e * m ^ c h % store by it, I am very willing to lose it.” 

“ Precisely,” said Saccard, joking in his turn, “ it will 
grow and give you millions. There is nothing like stolen 
money to yield a profit. Within a week you shall see 
'you shall see the rise ! ” 

And, in fact, Hamelin, having been obliged to postpone 
his departure, witnessed with surprise a rapid rise in the 
Universal’s stock. At the liquidation at the end of May, 
it was quoted at more than seven hundred francs. In this 
was to be seen the ordinary result produced by every 
increase of capital : it was a classic stroke, the way of 
lashing success, of setting the quotations to gallop'ing, 
with each new issue. But it was due also to the real im- 
portance of the enterprises which the house was about to 
launch ; and large yellow posters, pasted all over Paris, 
announcing the approaching exploitation of the Carmel 
silver mines, completed the agitation, kindling in all heads 
a beginning of intoxication, the passion which was to 
grow and sweep away all reason. The ground was pre- 
pared, the imperial compost, made of fermenting débris , 
heated by exasperated appetites, extremely favorable to 
®ne of those mad growths of speculation, which, every 
twenty years, obstruct and poison the Bourse, leaving 
after them only ruins and blood. Already doubtful socie- 
ties were springing up like mushrooms, great companies 
were pushing on to financial ventures, an intense fever of 
speculation was manifesting itself, amidst the noisy pros- 
perity of the reign, a perfect outburst of pleasure and 
luxury, of which the approaching Exposition promised to 
be the final splendor, the false apotheosis of enchantment. 
And in the vertigo which struck the crowd, amid the jostle 
of the other fine chances offering themselves upon the 


i%2 


MONEY. 


sidewalk, the Universal at last got itself in motion, like a 
powerful machine destined to infatuate everybody, to 
crush everybody, and which violent hands were heating 
immoderately, to the point of explosion. 

When her brother had started for the Orient, Madame 
Caroline again found herself alone with Saccard, resuming 
their narrow life of intimacy, almost conjugal. She in- 
sisted on caring for his house, causing him to realize 
economies, like a faithful stewardess, although the fortune 
of both of them had changed. And, in her smiling peace, 
her ever even temper, she felt but one disturbance, her 
case of conscience on the subject of Victor, the hesitation 
whether she ought longer to conceal from the father the 
existence of his son. They were very much dissatisfied 
with the latter at the Work of Labor, which he was ravag- 
ing. The six months of experiment having expired, 
should she produce the little monster, before having 
cleaned him of his vices? She felt sometimes a real 
suffering. 

One evening she was on the point of speaking. Sac- 
card, despondent over the shabby quarters of the Univer- 
sal, had just prevailed upon the board to rent the ground- 
floor of the next house, in order to enlarge the ofifices, 
until he could venture to propose the construction of the 
luxurious building of his dreams. Again he had doors of 
communication cut through, partitions torn down, and 
more wickets placed. And as she came back from the 
Boulevard Bineau, in despair over an abomination com- 
mitted by Victor, who had almost eaten a comrade’s ear, 
she asked him to go up with her to their apartments. 

“ My friend, I have something to say to you.” 

But upstairs, when she saw him, one shoulder covered 
with plaster, enchanted with a new idea of enlargement 
which had just occurred to him, — that of putting a glass 
roof over the court-yard of the next house also, — she had 
not the courage to upset him with the deplorable secret. 
No, she would wait a little longer ; the frightful scape- 
grace must reform. The thought of the pain of others 
took all strength away from her. 

“ Well, my friend, it was for this court-yard. The very 
same idea had occurred to me.” 


VI. 


The offices of /’ Espérance, the Catholic journal in dis- 
tress, which, upon Jantrou’s offer, Saccard had purchased, 
to assist in the launching of the Universal, was situated 
in the Rue Saint-Joseph, in an old, dark, damp building, 
of which they occupied the second floor, at the back of 
the court-yard. A passage-way led from the ante-room, 
where the gas was always burning ; and on the left was 
the office of Jantrou, the director, and then a room which 
Saccard had reserved for himself, while, on the right, in a 
row, were the general editorial room, the managing 
editor’s office, and the offices of the various departments. 
On the other side of the landing were the business office 
and the cash office, which an inner passage, turning behind 
the stairway, connected with the editorial rooms. 

On this occasion Jordan, in the act of finishing an article 
in the general editorial room, which he had entered at an 
early hour in order not to be disturbed, went out as the 
clock struck four to find Dejoie, the janitor, who, by the 
broad gas flame, despite the radiant June day without, 
was greedily reading the Bourse bulletin, which they 
brought and at which he got the first look. 

“ Tell me, Dejoie, was it Monsieur Jantrou who just 
came ? ” 

“Yes, Monsieur Jordan.” 

The young man had a hesitation, a short uneasiness, 
which stopped him for a few seconds. In the difficult 
beginnings of his happy household, old debts had fallen 
upon him ; and, in spite of his luck in having found this 
journal where he placed his articles, he was passing through 
a cruel embarrassment, especially as an attachment had 
been put upon his salary, and as he had to pay that day 
a new note under the threat of seeing his four pieces of 


184 


MONEY. 


furniture sold. Twice already he had vainly asked an ad- 
vance of the director, who had fallen back upon the 
attachment placed in his hands. 

However, he made up his mind, and was approaching 
the door, when the janitor added : 

“ Monsieur Jantrou is not alone.” 

“ Ah ! who is with him ? ” 


“ He came with Monsieur Saccard, and Monsieur Sac- 
card told me to let no one enter except Monsieur Huret 
for whom he is waiting.” 

Jordan breathed again, relieved by this delay, so painful 
did he find it to ask for money. 

“ All right, I am going to finish my article. Let me 
know when the director is at liberty.” 

But, as he was leaving, Dejoie retained him, with a 
shout of extreme delight. 

“You know that the Universal has reached seven hun- 
dred and fifty.” 

With a gesture the young man said that it was all one 
to him, and he re-entered the editorial room. 

Almost every day Saccard thus went up to the news- 
paper office after the Bourse, and often even made appoint- 
ments in the room which he had reserved for himself there 
negotiating special and mysterious affairs. Jantrou 
moreover, although officially he was only the director of 
/ hspérance, for which he wrote political articles in the 
finished and florid style of a University man, articles 
which his opponents themselves recognized as “ the purest 
atticism was his secret agent, the accommodating ex- 
ecutor of delicate tasks. And among other things he 
had just organized a vast scheme of advertising around the 
Universal. Of the little financial sheets that swarmed he 

5 ad u^ S t n ^ nd P urchased ten - The best belonged to 
doubtful banking houses, whose very simple tactics con- 
sisted in publishing them and giving them for two or three 
francs a year, a sum which would not even pay the post- 
age ; and they made it up in some other way, dealing in 
the money and stocks of the patrons which the journal 
brought them. Under the pretext of publishing the 
Bourse quotations, the lucky numbers in the bond draw- 


MONEY. 


185 

ings, and all the technical information useful to small 
capitalists, gradually puffs slipped in, in the form of 
recommendation and advice, at first modest and reason- 
able but soon immoderate, quietly impudent, sowing 
ruin among the credulous subscribers. From the heap, 
amid the two or three hundred publications which were 
thus ravaging Paris and France, his scent had just chosen 
those which had not lied too boldly yet, and were not 
therefore in too bad odor. But the big affair which he 
contemplated was the purchase of one of them, the 
Cote Financière , which had already twelve years of abso- 
lute honesty behind it ; only, such honesty threatened to 
be very expensive ; and he was waiting till the Universal 
should be richer and find itself in one of those situations 
in which a last blast of the trumpet determines the deaf- 
ening peals of triumph. His effort, however, was not 
confined to marshalling a docile battalion of these special 
sheets, celebrating in each number the beauty of Saccard’s 
operations ; he contracted also by the job with the prin- 
cipal political and literary journals, keeping up in their 
columns a current of amiable notes and laudatory articles, 
at so much a line, assuring himself of their aid by presents 
of stock at the time of new issues. To say nothing of 
the daily campaign carried on under his orders by V Espé- 
rance, not a brutal campaign, violently approving, but ex- 
planations, and even discussion, a slow fashion of seizing 
the public and strangling it, correctly. 

On this occasion, it was to talk of the journal that Sac- 
card had shut himself up with Jantrou. He had found, 
in the morning issue 2 an article by Huret eulogizing so 
extravagantly a speech made by Rougon the day before 
in the Chamber that he had entered into a violent rage, 
and was waiting for the deputy, to have an explanation 
with him. Did they suppose that he was in his brother’s 
employ? Was he paid to suffer the journal’s line of con- 
duct to be compromised by unreserved approval of the 
minister’s slightest acts? When he heard him speak of 
the journal’s line of conduct, Jantrou smiled silently. He 
listened to him, however, very calmly, examining his fin- 
ger-nails, from the moment the storm did not threaten to 


1 86 


Money. 


break upon his shoulders. He, with his cynicism of a 
disabused man of letters, had the most perfect disdain 
for literature, for the first and the second, as he said in des- 
ignating the pages of the journal upon which the articles 
appeared, even his own ; and he began to show interest 
only on reaching the advertisements. Now he was ar- 
rayed in a flaming new suit, closely buttoned in an ele- 
gant frock-coat, the button-hole blooming with a brilliant 
rosette of various colors, in summer carrying on his arm 
a thin light-colored overcoat, in winter buried in a fur 
coat costing a hundred louis, especially careful about his 
head-wear, his hats being irreproachable, shining like a 
mirror. But with all this there still were gaps in his 
elegance, a vague suspicion of uncleanliness persisting 
underneath, the old filth of the teacher out of his sphere, 
fallen from the Bordeaux school-house to the Paris Bourse, 
his skin penetrated and stained with the dirt that he had 
been wiping off for ten years; so that, in the arrogant 
assurance of his new fortune, he still showed base humili- 
ties, effacing himself, seized with the sudden fear of 
receiving some kick from behind as in former times. He 
made a hundred thousand francs a year, consumed double 
the sum, nobody knew how, for he paraded no mistress, 
torn undoubtedly by some base vice, the secret cause 
which had driven him from the University. Absinthe, 
moreover, was gradually devouring him, since his days of 
poverty, continuing its work from the infamous cafés of 
former days to the luxurious club-house of to-day, mow- 
ing off his last hairs, giving a leaden hue to his skull and 
face, of which his black, fan-shaped beard remained the 
sole glory, a beard of a handsome man who still preserves 
the illusion. And Saccard having again invoked the 
journal’s line of conduct, he had stopped him with a ges- 
ture, with the weary air of a man who, not liking to waste 
his time in useless passion, had made up his mind to talk 
of serious matters, since Huret did not appear. 

For some time Jantrou had been nursing new adver- 
tising schemes. He thought at first of writing a pam- 
phlet, twenty pages regarding the grand enterprises which 
the Universal was launching, but giving it the interest of 


MONEY. 


187 

a little romance, in a dramatic and familiar style ; and he 
wished to inundate the provinces with this pamphlet, to be 
distributed gratuitously, in the remotest country districts. 
Then he proposed the establishment of an agency to draw 
up a bulletin of the Bourse and reproduce it by pro- 
cess, a, hundred copies to be sent to the best journals in 
the various departments of France : this bulletin should 
be given away or sold at a nominal price, and thus they 
would soon have in their hands a powerful weapon, a 
force which all rival banking houses would have to recog- 
nize. Knowing Saccard, he thus filled him up with his 
ideas, until the latter adopted them, made them his own, 
enlarged them to the point of really re-creating them. 
The minutes slipped away ; both had come to the regu- 
lation of the employment of the advertising funds for the 
quarter, the subsidies to be paid to the principal journals, 
the terrible preparer of bulletins for a hostile house whose 
silence it was necessary to purchase, what course to take 
in the auction sale of the fourth page of a very old and 
highly respected sheet. And their prodigality, all this 
money that they thus scattered in confusion to the four 
corners of heaven, showed especially their immense dis- 
dain for the public, the contempt in which their intelli- 
gence as business men held the dense ignorance of the 
crowd, ready to believe all stories, so closed against the 
complex operations of the Bourse that the most auda- 
cious traps caught the passers-by and made the millions 
rain. 

As Jordan was still seeking fifty lines with which to 
complete his two columns, he was disturbed by Dejoie, 
who called him. 

“ Ah ! ” said he, “ Monsieur Jantrou is alone?” 

“ No, Monsieur, not yet. But your wife is here, and 
wants to see you.” 

Very anxious, Jordan hurried out.. For the last few 
months, since the Méchain had at last discovered that he 
was writing over his own name, in V Espérance, he had been 
besieged by Busch for the six notes of fifty francs each, 
given formerly to a tailor. The sum of three hundred 
francs, which the notes represented, he could still have 


1 88 


MONEY. 


managed to pay, but what exasperated him was the enor- 
mity of the costs, this total of seven hundred and thirty 
francs and fifteen centimes, to which the debt had risen. 
He had compromised, however, and pledged himself to 
pay a hundred francs a month ; and, as he could not do 
it, his young household having more pressing needs, each 
month the costs rose higher yet, and the intolerable an- 
noyances began again. 

Just at this time he was again passing through a seri- 
ous crisis. 

“What’s the matter?” he asked of his wife, whom he 
found in the ante-room. 

But before she could answer, the door of the director’s 
office opened violently, and Saccard appeared, shouting: 

“ Say, there, Dejoie ! and Monsieur Huret?” 

The bewildered janitor stammered : 

“ Why, Monsieur, he is not here ; I cannot make him 
hurry.” 

The door was closed again with an oath, and Jordan, 
who had taken his wife into one of the adjoining offices, 
could question her at his ease. 

“ What’s the matter, darling ? ” 

Marcelle, usually so gay and brave, whose little plump 
dark person and clear countenance with laughing eyes 
and healthy mouth expressed happiness even in trying 
times, seemed utterly upset. 

.“Oh! Paul, if you only knew! A man came, oh! a 
frightful, ugly man, who smelt bad and had been drink- 
I think. Then he told me that the matter was 
ended, that the sale of our furniture was fixed for to-mor- 
row. And he had a placard, which he insisted on putting 
up at the door.” r b 

“ But it is impossible,” cried Jordan. « I have received 
nothing, there are other formalities to be observed.” 

t j ° h \lt S ’ yOU know stiI1 less about these matters than 
1 do. When papers come, you do not even read them 
t hen, to keep him from putting up the placard, I gave 
him forty sous, and hurried to tell you directly ” 

They were in despair. Their poor little home in the 
Avenue de Clichy, those four pieces of furniture, of 


MONEY. 


189 


mahogany and blue rep, which they had paid for with such 
difficulty at so much a month, and of which they were so 
proud, although they sometimes laughed at them, finding 
them in execrable bourgeois taste! They loved them be- 
cause they had made a part of their happiness, on their 
wedding night, in these two little rooms, so sunny, so 
open to space, commanding a view even of Mont-Valérien ; 
and he who had driven so many nails, and she who had 
shown so much ingenuity in the draperies of Turkish red, 
to give the apartments an artistic air! Was it possible 
that all this was going to be sold, that they were to be 
driven from this pretty nook, where even poverty was 
delightful to them ? 

“ Listen,” said he, “ I was intending to ask for an ad- 
vance ; I will do what I can, but I have not much hope.” 

Then, hesitating, she confided to him her idea; 

“ Here is what I have been thinking of. Oh ! I would 
not have done it without your consent ; as you see from 
the fact that I have come here to talk with you about it. 
Yes, I desire to apply to my parents.” 

He promptly refused. 

“ No, no, never ! You know that I do not wish to owe 
them anything.” 

To be sure, they were not on bad terms with the Mau- 
gendres. But he kept on his heart their cold attitude 
when, after the suicide of his father, in the collapse of his 
fortune, they had consented to the marriage of their 
daughter, so long looked forward to, only^ipon her ex- 
press wish ; besides taking offensive precautions against 
him, among others that of not giving them a sou, con- 
vinced that a fellow who wrote in the newspapers would 
eat up everything. Later their daughter would inherit 
their property. And both, she as well as he, had taken a 
certain pride in starving without asking anything of her 
parents, except the meal which they took with them once 
a week, on Sunday evening. 

“ I assure you,” she replied, “ our reserve is ridiculous. 
Since I am their only child, since the whole must come 
to me some day! My father tells any one who will listen 
to him that hç has acquired an income of fifteen thousand 


MONEY. 


I go 

francs by his manufacture of awnings at Villette ; and 
then there is their little residence, with its beautiful gar- 
den, to which they have retired. It is stupid to give our- 
selves so much pain, when they are surfeited with every- 
thing. They have never been ugly to us, you know. I 
tell you that I am going to see them.” 

She had a cheerful bravery, a determined air, very prac- 
tical in her desire to bring happiness to her dear husband, 
who worked so hard without yet having obtained any- 
thing from the critics and the public but much indiffer- 
ence and a few kicks and cuffs. Ah ! money, she would 
have liked to bring it to him by the bucket-full, and he 
would be very stupid to be too particular about it, since 
she loved him and owed him everything. It was her fairy 
story, her Cinderella : the treasures of her royal family, 
which she laid, with her little hands, at the feet of her 
ruined prince, to help him in his inarch to glory and the 
conquest of the world. 

“ Come,” said she, gayly, kissing him, “ I really must 
be of some use to you ; all the pain must not be yours.” 

He yielded ; it was agreed that she should go straight- 
way to the Rue Legendre, at the Batignolles, where her 
parents lived, and that she should come back to bring the 
money, in order that he might try to pay it that very 
afternoon. And, as he accompanied her to the stairs, as 
much agitated as though she were starting on a very 
dangerous expedition, they had to step aside to allow 
the passage ^f Huret, who had arrived at last. When he 
returned to finish his article in the editorial room, he 
heard a violent hubbub of voices in Jantrou’s office. 

Saccard, now powerful, the master once more, wished 
to be obeyed, knowing that he held them all by the hope 
of gain and the terror of loss in the game of colossal for- 
tune which he was playing with them. 

“Ah! here you are,” he shouted, on seeing Huret. 
“ Did you stop in the Chamber to offer the great man 
your article framed? Do you know that I have had 
enough of this swinging of incense before his face, and I 
have been waiting for you to tell you that it must bç. 


MONEY. 


I 9 I 

stopped ; that in future you will have to give us some- 
thing else ? ” 

Nonplussed, Huret looked at Jantrou. But the latter, 
thoroughly determined not to get himself into trouble by 
aiding him, had begun to pass his fingers through his 
handsome beard, his eyes wandering. 

“ What ! something else? ” finally answered the deputy ; 
“ but I give you what you have asked ! When you took 
V Espérance, the organ of extreme Catholicism and royal- 
ty, which was carrying on such a harsh campaign against 
Rougon, you yourself asked me to write a series of lauda- 
tory articles, to show your brother that you did not in- 
tend to be hostile to him, and to thus outline the new 
policy of the journal.” 

“ The policy of the journal, precisely,” replied Saccard, 
with more violence ; •“ it is the policy of the journal that 
I accuse you of compromising. Do you think that I 
wish to be my brother’s tool ? Certainly I have never 
been sparing of my grateful admiration and affection for 
the emperor ; I do not forget what we all owe to him, 
what I owe to him, I in especial. But to point out mis- 
takes that are made is not to attack the empire, but is, 
on the contrary, to do one’s duty as a faithful subject. 
That is the policy of the journal, — devotion to the dy- 
nasty, but entire independence with regard to ministers, 
ambitious personalities which agitate and dispute with 
each other for the favor of the Tuileries!” 

And he went into an examination of the political situ- 
ation, to prove that the emperor had bad advisers. He 
accused Rougon of having lost his authoritarian energy, his 
former faith in absolute power, and of compromising his 
liberal ideas, for the sole purpose of keeping his portfolio. 
Striking his chest with his fist, he characterized himself 
as unchangeable, a Bonapartist from the first, a believer 
in the coup d' Etat, convinced that the salvation of France 
lay, to-day as well as formerly, in the genius and force of 
a single man. Yes, rather than aid in the evolution of 
his brother, rather than allow the emperor to commit 
suicide by new concessions, he would rally the uncompro- 
mising believers in dictatorship, and make common cause 


192 


MONEY. 


with the Catholics, to stop the rapid fall which he fore- 
saw. And let Rougon take care, for V Espérance might 
resume its campaign in favor of Rome ! 

Huret and Jantrou listened to him, astonished at his 
wrath, never having suspected him of such ardent politi- 
cal convictions. The former thought best to try to de- 
fend the last acts of the government. 

“Why, my dear sir, if the empire is moving toward 
liberty, it is because all France is pushing it firmly in that 
direction. The emperor is borne with the current, and 
Rougon is obliged to follow him.” 

But Saccard was already off to other grievances, taking 
no pains to make his assaults logical. 

“And see, it is the same with our foreign situation; 
why! it is deplorable. Since the treaty of Villafranca, 
after Solferino, Italy has cherished à resentment against 
us for not having gone to the end of the campaign and 
given her Venice ; so that here she is allied with Prussia, 
in the certainty that the latter will help her to whip Aus- 
tria. , When the war bursts out, you’ll see what a row 
there’ll be, and what a fix we shall be in ; especially as we 
have made the great mistake of allowing Bismarck and 
King William to seize the duchies in the Denmark affair, 
in contempt of a treaty which France had signed : it is a 
slap in the face, it’s no use denying it, and there is nothing 
for us but to turn the other cheek. Oh ! war is certain ; 
you remember how French and Italian bonds fell last 
month when there was talk of a possible intervention on 
our part in German affairs. Within a fortnight perhaps 
Europe will be on fire.” 

More and more surprised, Huret became excited, con- 
trary to his habit. 

“You talk like the opposition; you certainly do not 
wish /’ Espérance to tag on after the Siècle and the rest. 
There is nothing left for you but to insinuate, following 
the example of those sheets, that, if the emperor has suf- 
fered humiliation in the affair of the duchies, and allows 
Prussia to grow with impunity, it is because he has sent 
an entire army corps upon the Mexican expedition. 
Come, bç a little fair, the Mexican matter is over, our 


MONEY. 


193 


ol ] 5 ba T C c k - And then > 1 do not understand 
you, my dear sir. If you wish to keep Rome for the 

Pope, why do you seem to blame the hasty peace of 

Up !u V: C r ' Ven lS e t0 but within two years it will 
be the Italians to Rome ; you know that as well as I do • 

and Rougon _ knows it too, although he swears the con- 
trary from the tribune.” 

“ A A ! yo “ T see what a fraud h e is ! ” shouted Saccard, 
superbly. Never will they touch the Pope, do you un’ 
derstand, without Catholic France rising as one man to 
defend him. We should carry him our money! yes T M 
,?° ney °, f th e Universal. I have my plan! our affair 
there, and really, if you keep on exasperating me, you 
will make me say things that I do not want to say yet ” 
Jantrou, very much interested, had suddenly pricked 
up his ears, beginning to understand, trying to profit by a 
word thus casually dropped. y 

“Well,” replied Huret, “I want to know what to de- 
pend upon in the matter of my articles, and we must 
come to an understanding. Are you for intervention or 
against intervention? If we are for the principle of 
nationalities, by what right should we go to meddle with 
the affairs of Italy and Germany? Do you wish us to 
carry on a campaign against Bismarck? Yes! in the 
name of our menaced frontiers.” 


S ac J ar d> beside himself, and standing, burst out : 

“ y hat \ want is that Rougon shall not mock at me 
any longer ! What ! after all that I have done ! I buy 
a journal, the worst of his enemies, I make it an organ 
devoted to his politics, I allow you to sing his praises for 
months. And never would he give us a single lift ; I have 
still to receive the first service from him.” 

Timidly the deputy called his attention to the fact that 
in the Orient the minister’s support had singularly aided 
the engineer Hamelin, by opening all doors before him 
and exercising a pressure upon certain personages. 

“ Oh ! leave me in peace ! He could not do otherwise. 
But has he ever notified me, the day before a rise or fall 
in stocks, he who is so well situated to know everything? 
Come, do you remember, twenty times I have charged 


194 


MONEY. 


you to sound him, you who see him every day, and you 
have yet to bring me a true and useful pointer. Yet it 
would not be such a serious matter, a simple word for 
you to repeat to me.” 

“ Undoubtedly! but he doesn’t like that sort of thing; 
he says one always has occasion to repent of such job- 
bery.” 

“ Nonsense ! has he any such scruples with Gunder- 
mann? He plays the honest man with me, and he gives 
tips to Gundermann.” 

“ Oh ! Gundermann, of course ! They all need Gun- 
dermann ; they could not make a loan without him.” 

At the word Saccard brought his hands together with 
a violent air of triumph. 

“ There we are, then, you confess it ! The empire 
is sold to the Jews, the dirty Jews. All our money 
is doomed to fall into their hooked claws. There is 
nothing for the Universal but to collapse before their 
omnipotence.” 

And he exhaled his hereditary hatred, he continued his 
accusations against this race of traffickers and usurers, on 
the march for centuries through the nations, sucking their 
blood, like the parasites of the scurf and the itch, going 
on nevertheless, spat upon and beaten, to the certain 
conquest of the world, which some day they would possess 
by the invincible power of gold. And he was especially 
furious against Gundermann, yielding to his old resent- 
ment, to the unrealizable and mad desire to strike him 
down, in spite of the presentiment that he was the limit 
against which he would be crushed, if he ever entered into 
a struggle with him. Ah ! this Gundermann ! a Prussian 
at heart, although he was born in France! for his sympa- 
thies were evidently with Prussia ; he would willingly 
have sustained her with his money, perhaps he was se- 
cretly sustaining her even now! Had he not dared to say 
one evening, in a salon, that, if a war should ever break 
out between Prussia and France, the latter would be con- 
quered ? 

“I have had enough of it, do you understand, Huret? 
and get this well into your head,— that, if my brother is 


MONEY. 


195 


of no service to me, I do not intend to be of any further 
service to him. When you have brought me one good 
word from him, I mean a ‘ tip ’ that we can utilize, I will 
allow you to resume your dithyrambs in his favor. Is 
that clear? 

It was too clear. Jantrou, who had again found his 
Saccard under the political theorist, had begun once more 
to comb his beard with the ends of his fingers. But 
Huret, upset m his prudent ciyming of a Norman 
peasant, seemed greatly annoyed, for he had staked his 
fortune upon the two brothers, and would have preferred 
to quarrel with neither of them. 


You are right,” he murmured, “ we will draw it mild, 
especially as it is necessary to anticipate events. And I 
promise you to do everything to obtain the great man’s 
confidence. The first news that he gives me, I will jump 
into a cab and bring it to you.” 

Already, having played his rôle , Saccard was in good 
humor again. 


“ It is for you all that I am working, my good friends. 
I have always been ruined, and I have always consumed 
a million a year.” 

And, returning to the advertising, he continued : 

\ Say* Jantrou, you ought to make your Bourse bul- 
letin a little more lively. Yes, you know, jokes, puns. 
The public like that sort of thing; there is nothing like 
wit to help them swallow things. Am I not right ? 
puns!” . * 

It was the director’s turn to be vexed. He prided him- 
self on his literary distinction. But he had to promise. 
And, as he invented a story, of prominent women who 
had offered to have advertisements tattooed on the most 
delicate portions of their persons, the three men, laughing 
loudly, again became the best friends in the world. 

Meanwhile Jordan had at last finished his article, and 
was impatiently awaiting his wife’s return. Other editors 
arrived ; he talked with them, and then went into the 
ante-room. . And there he was a little scandalized to sur- 
prise Dejoie, with his ear glued against the director’s 


196 


MONEY. 


door, in the act of listening, while his daughter Nathalie 

D W o a no h t go in,” he stammered ; “ Monsieur Saccard is 
still there. I thought I heard them call me. 

The truth was that, bitten by a fierce desire for gam, 
since he had bought and fully paid for eight shares in the 
Universal with the four thousand francs which his wife 
had saved and left to him he lived only for the joyous 
emotion of seeing these shares rise ; and, on his knees 
before Saccardfgathering up his slightest remarks like the 
words of an oracle, he could not resist, when he knew him 
to be there, his desire to become acquainted with his real 
thought, to hear what the god said in the secret of the 
sanctuary. Moreover, there was no egoism in this , he 
thought only of his daughter ; he had just become ex- 
cited by the calculation that his eight shares, at the rate 
of seven hundred and fifty francs, already gave him a 
profit of twelve hundred francs, which, added to the capi- 
tal, made five thousand two hundred francs. Another 
rise of a hundred francs, and he had the six thousand 
francs dreamed of, the dowry which the box-maker in- 
sisted upon as the condition of his son s marriage. At 
this thought his heart melted ; he looked th r0 “g h tean ! 
at this child that he had brought up, and whose real 
mother he had been, in the happy little household which 
they had maintained together since he had taken her from 

But he still seemed very much disturbed, uttering the 
first words that he could think of, to conceal his mdis- 


“ Nathalie, who came up to say ‘ How do you do,’ has 
just met your wife, Monsieur Jordan.’ 

“ Yes,” said the young girl ; “ she was turning into the 
Rue Feydeau. Oh! she was on the run. 

Her father allowed her to go out as she pleased, certain 
of her, he said. And he was right to rely upon her good 
conduct, for she was really too cold, too determined to 
look out for her own happiness, to compromise by any 
stupidity the marriage so long looked forward to. With 
her slender figure, and her large eyes in her pretty pale 


MONEY, 


197 


sm'T S ^ G ^° Ve< ^ herself e g°istic obstinacy, wearing a 

Jordan, surprised and not understanding, cried out: 

“ What! in the Rue Feydeau ?” 

And he had not time to question her further, for Mar- 
celle entered, out of breath. He straightway took her 
into the adjoining office, but, finding the court reporter 
there, had to content himself with sitting down beside her 
on a little bench at the end of the passage-wav 

“Well?” e ^ y. 

“ y^ 1 , 1 ! m y darling, it is done, but not without some 
trouble. ’ 

In her satisfaction he saw clearly that her heart was 
full , and she told him all, with a low and rapid voice, for 
in vain had she promised herself to hide certain things 
from him, she could have no secrets. 

For some time the Maugendres had been changing in 
their attitude toward their daughter. She found them 
less tender, preoccupied, slowly invaded by a new passion, 
the passion for gambling. It was the usual story: the 
father, a stout, calm, bald man, with white side-whiskers 5 
the mother, dry and active, having made her share of the 
fortune ; both living too handsomely in their house, on 
their income of fifteen thousand francs, weary of having 
nothing to do. He had nothing to occupy his attention 
except the collection of his money. At that time he 
thundered against all speculation, and shrugged his shoul- 
ders with wrath and pity in speaking of the poor im- 
beciles who get themselves plucked in a mass of robberies 
as stupid as unclean. But about this time, an important 
sum having been repaid to him, he conceived the idea of 
using it in reports .•* that was not speculation, it was a 
simple investment ; only, starting from that day, he had 
formed the habit of reading attentively, after his break- 
fast, the Bourse quotations in his journal. And there the 
evil had started ; the fever had gradually burned him, at 

* A method of lending money against securities, by which the lender 
buys the securities t the amount of the loan and the borrower agrees to 
repurchase them at a given date at an advance representing the interest 
on the amount from the time of purchase to the time of sale.— Translator. 


MONEY. 


I98 

seeing the dance of values, at living in this poisoned at- 
mosphere of gambling, his imagination haunted by mill- 
ions made in an hour, he who had spent thirty years in get- 
ting together a few hundred thousand francs. He could not 
help talking to his wife about it at each meal : what strokes 
he would have made, if he had not sworn that he would 
never gamble ! And he explained the operation ; he 
manipulated his funds with all the skilful tactics of a gen- 
eral in his chamber, always ending by triumphantly van- 
quishing his imaginary opponents, for he prided himself in 
having become of the first force in the matter of options 
and reports. His wife, anxious, declared she would rather 
drown herself directly than see him hazard a sou ; but he 
reassured her; what did she take him for? Never in 
life! Yet an occasion had offered; both had long had a 
mad desire to build in their garden a little green-house 
costing from five to six thousand francs; so that one 
evening, his hands trembling with a delightful emotion, he 
laid upon his wife’s work-table the six notes, saying that 
he had just made them at the Bourse : a stroke of which 
he was sure, an indulgence which he promised not to re- 
peat, which he had risked only because of the green- 
house. She, divided between anger and the shock of her 
joy, had not dared to scold him. The following month 
he launched out into options, explaining to her that he 
feared nothing, provided he limited his loss. Then, the 
devil ! there were some excellent chances in the heap ; it 
would be very stupid of him to let his neighbor profit by 
them. And inevitably ’he had begun to speculate, in a 
small way at first, gradually growing bolder, while she, 
always agitated by her anguish of a good housewife, her 
eyes flaming nevertheless at the slightest gain, continued 
to predict that he would die a beggar. 

But especially did Captain Chave, Madame Maugendre’s 
brother, blame his brother-in-law. He, who could not live 
on his pension of eighteen hundred francs, speculated, to 
be sure, at the Bourse ; but then he was the shrewdest of 
the shrewd, he went there as a clerk goes to his office, 
operating only on a cash basis, delighted when he took 
home his twenty-franc piece at night : daily operations of 


Money. 


r 99 


the most certain sort, and so modest as to avoid catastro- 
phes. His sister had offered him a room in her house, 
which was too large now that Marcelle had married ; but 
he had refused, wishing to be free, having vices, occupy- 
ing a single room, at the back of a garden in the Rue 
Nollet, into which petticoats were continually gliding. 
His profits must be spent in bonbons and cakes for his 
little friends. Always he had cautioned Maugendre, tell- 
ing him not to gamble, but to take life easily ; and when 
the latter cried : “ But you ? ” he made a vigorous gesture : 
oh ! he! that was different, he had not an income of fifteen 
thousand francs ! If he gambled, it was the fault of this 
dirty government which begrudged to its old soldiers the 
joy of their old age. His great argument against gam- 
bling was that mathematically the gambler is bound to 
lose ; if he wins, he has to deduct the brokerage and the 
stamp tax ; if he loses, he has to pay these taxes in addi- 
tion ; so that, even admitting that he wins as often as. he 
loses, he is still out of pocket to the extent of the stamp 
tax and the brokerage. Annually, at the Paris Bourse, 
these taxes produce the enormous total of eighty millions. 
And he brandished this figure, eighty millions gathered in 
by the State, the coulissiers , and the brokers ! 

On the little bench at the end of the corridor Marcelle 
confessed to her husband a part of this story. 

“ My darling, I must say that my visit was ill-timed. 
Mamma was quarrelling with Papa on account of a loss 
which he has met at the Bourse. Yes, it seems that he 
never leaves it now. It seems so queer to me, he who 
formerly would tolerate nothing but labor. Well, they 
were disputing, and there was a newspaper, the Cote Finan- 
cière, which Mamma was shaking under his nose, telling 
him that he didn’t know anything, that she had foreseen 
the fall herself. Then he went after another paper, pre- 
cisely V Espérance, and wanted to show her the article from 
which he got his information. In fact, the house is full 
of newspapers, they are stuffed with them from morning 
till night, and I believe, God forgive me! that Mamma is 
beginning to speculate too, in spite of her furious air.” 


200 


MONEY. 


Jordan could not help laughing, so amusing was her 
mimicry of the scene, in her sorrow. 

“Well, I told them of our embarrassment, and asked 
them to lend us two hundred francs to stop the proceed- 
ings. And if you had then heard them cry out ! Two 
hundred francs, when they had lost two thousand at the 
Bourse! Was I laughing at them? Did I wish to ruin 
them ? Never did I see them in such a state. They who 
were so kind to me, who would have spent their all in 
making me presents ! Really they must be going mad, 
for there is no sense in thus spoiling their lives, when they 
were so happy in their beautiful house, with nothing to 
worry them, having only to consume at their ease the for- 
tune which they so painfully earned.” 

“ I certainly hope that you did not insist,” said Jordan. 

“ Why, yes, I did insist, and then they fell upon you. 
You see that I tell you everything; I had promised my- 
self to keep this from you, and here it escapes me. They 
repeated to me that they had seen how it would be, that 
to write in the newspapers is no kind of a business, that 
we should end in the hospital. Finally, as I was getting 
angry in my turn and was about to leave, the captain 
came. You know that Uncle Chave has always adored 
me. And in his presence they became reasonable, espe- 
cially as he triumphed over Papa by asking him if he was 
going to continue to get himself robbed. Mamma took 
me aside, and slipped fifty francs into my hand, saying 
that with that we could obtain a few days’ delay, giving 
us time to turn around.” 

“ F^ty francs ! a pittance ! and you accepted them ? ” 

Marcelle had grasped his hands tenderly, quieting him 
with her tranquil reason. 

“Come, don’t be angry. Yes, I accepted them, and I 
understood so well that you would never dare to take them 
to the sheriff’s officer that I went directly myself to this 
sheriff’s officer, you know, in the Rue Cadef. - But just 
imagine ! he refused to take them, explaining that he had 
formal orders from M. Busch, and that M. Busch could 
alone stop the proceedings. Oh ! that Busch ! I hate no- 
body, but how he exasperates and disgusts me ! But 


MONEY. 


20 1 


that s nothing ; Iran to his office in the Rue Feydeau 
and he had to content himself with the fifty francs, and 
here we are, at peace for a fortnight.” 

Deep emotion had contracted Jordan’s face, while the 
tears that he was holding back moistened the edges of 
his eyes. 

“ You have done this, my little wife, you have done 
this? 

Why, yes, I did not wish you to be annoyed any fur- 
ther. What harm does it do me to receive stupidities, if 
they will let you work in peace? ” 

And now she laughed and told the story of her arrival 
at Busch s office, amid the filth of his papers, the brutal 
way in which he had received her, his threats that he 
would not leave them a single garment if the whole debt 
weie not paid on the instant. The queer part was that 
she had given herself the treat of exasperating him by dis- 
puting the legitimacy of Jiis title to this debt, these notes 
of three hundred francs, amounting with costs to seven 
hundred and thirty francs and fifteen centimes, and which 
perhaps had not cost him a hundred sous, in some lot of 
old rags. He choked with fury : in the first place, he had 
bought them at a very high price ; and then there was his 
lost time, and the fatigue of the running about that he 
had had to do for two years to discover the signer, and 
the intelligence that he had had to display in this man- 
hunt, must he not be repaid for all that ? So much the 
worse for those who allowed themselves to be caught ! 
But at last he had taken the fifty francs all the same, be- 
cause his system of prudence was to compromise always. 

“ Ah ! my little wife, how brave you are, and how I 
love you ! ” said Jordan, allowing himself to kiss Marcelle, 
although the managing editor was just then passing. 

And then, lowering his voice, he said : 

“ How much have we left at home?” 

“ Seven francs.” 

“ Good ! ” he rejoined, very happy, “ we can go two days 
on that, and I will not ask for an advance which would 
surely be refused. That costs me too much. To-morrow 
I will go to see if the Siècle will take an article from me. 


202 


MONEY. 


Ah ! if I had finished my novel, if that would sell for â 
little ! ” 

Marcelle kissed him in her turn. 

“Yes, things will do very well. Now you will go home 
with me, will you not ? That will be so good, and we will 
buy, for to-morrow morning, a red herring at the corner of 
the Rue de Clichy, where I have seen some superb ones. 
To-night we have potatoes and bacon.” 

Jordan, after having asked a comrade to look at his 
proofs, started off with his wife. Saccard and Huret were 
going away also. In the street a coupé had just stopped 
in front of the door of the newspaper office, and they saw 
the Baroness Sandorff step out. She bowed with a smile, 
and then went up the stairs hurriedly. She sometimes 
thus paid a visit to Jantrou. Saccard, whom she much 
excited with her large bruised eyes, was on the point of 
going up after her. 

Up-stairs, in the director’s office, the Baroness would 
not even sit down. A little “ How do you do?” in pass- 
ing, simply with an idea of asking him if he knew nothing. 
In spite of his sudden fortune, she treated him still as in 
the days when she saw him every morning at the house of 
her father, M. de Ladricourt, with the bent spine of a re- 
misier after an order. Her father was revolting in his 
brutality ; she could not forget the kick with which he 
had sent him to the door in his wrath over a heavy loss. 
And now that she saw him at the fountain-head of news, 
she had again become familiar, she tried to confess him. 

“ Well, nothing new ? ” 

“ No, indeed, I know nothing.” 

But she continued to look at him with a smile, per- 
suaded that he was unwilling to speak. Then, to force 
him to be confidential, she began to speak of this stupid 
war that was going to set Austria, Italy, and Prussia by 
the ears. Speculation was in a panic ; there had been a 
terrible fall in Italian bonds, as well as in all stocks for 
that matter. And she was very much annoyed, because 
she did not know how far she ought to follow this move- 
ment, having already risked large sums for the approach- 
ing liquidation. 


MONEY. 


2Ô3 

“Then your husband gives you no ‘tips’?” asked Jan- 
trou, jestingly. “ He is certainly in a good position to # 
do so, at the embassy.” 

“ • m Y husband,” she murmured, with a disdainful 

gesture, “ my husband, I get nothing more from him.” 

He continued to laugh at her expense, going so far as 
to allude to the attorney-general, Delcambre, the lover 
who, it was said, paid her balances, when she consented to 
pay them at all. 

“ And your friends, do they know nothing, either at 
court or at the palace ? ” 

She pretended not to understand, but rejoined, in a sup- 
plicating tone, without taking her eyes off him : 

“ Come, be amiable yourself. You know something?” 

Once already, in his rage after all petticoats, unclean 
or elegant, that brushed against him, he had thought of 
taking his pay, as he brutally expressed it, from this 
woman gambler, who was so familiar with him. But at 
the first word, at the first gesture, she had straightened 
up with such repugnance and contempt that he had prom- 
ised himself not to repeat the experiment, With this man 
whom her father received with kicks, ah ! never ! She 
was not yet at that point. 

“Amiable, why should I be?” said he, laughing with 
an embarrassed air. “ You are scarcely amiable with me.” 

Straightway she became grave again, her eyes hard. 
And she turned her back upon him to go away, when out 
of spite, trying to wound her, he added : 

“ You just met Saccard at the door, didn’t you ? Why 
didn’t you question him, since he has nothing to refuse 
you ?” 

She came back suddenly. 

“ What do you mean ?” 

“ Why ! whatever you please to understand. Come, do 
not pretend to be mystified ; I have seen you at his house. 

I know him ! ” 

A feeling of revolt filled her, all the pride of her race, 
still alive, rising from the troubled depths, from the mud 
in which her passion was drowning it a little more each 


204 


MONEY. 


day. However, she did not fly into a passion, but saic 
simply in a clear, severe tone : 

“ Ah ! my dear sir, for what do you take me? You art 
mad. No, I am not the mistress of your Saccard, because 
I was unwilling to be.” 

And he, then, with his flowery politeness of a man ol 
letters, saluted her. with a profound bow. 

“ Well, Madame, you have made the greatest mistake 
Believe me, if you have another chance, do not fail tc 
improve it, because you, who are always on the hunt foi 
‘ tips,’ could find them, without so much trouble, undei 
that gentleman’s bolster. Oh ! my God ! yes, the nest 
will soon be there, you will only have to thrust in youi 
pretty fingers.” 

She made up her mind to laugh, as if resigned tc 
making allowance for his cynicism. When she shook 
hands with him, he felt hers all cold. Really, could she 
be withheld by her tiresome duty to the icy and bon> 
Delcambre, this red-lipped woman, who was said to be 
insatiable ? 

The month of June went by; on the fifteenth Italy had 
declared war against Austria. On the other hand, Prussia 
in scarcely two weeks, by a crushing march, hael just in 
vaded Hanover, and conquered the two Hesses, Baden 
and Saxony, surprising the disarmed populations amic 
peace. France had not budged ; well-informed peopk 
whispered softly at the Bourse that she had had a secrei 
understanding with Prussia, since Bismarck met th( 
emperor at Biarritz ; and they talked mysteriously of th< 
compensations which were to pay for her neutrality 
But none the less the .decline in stocks went on,disas 
trously. When, on the fourth of July, the news o 
Sadowa came, that sudden thunderbolt, there was an under 
mining of all values. They believed in an obstinate prolong 
ation of the war; for, though Austria was beaten b a 
P russia, she had conquered Italy at Custozza ; and already 
it was said that she was gathering the débris of her army 
while abandoning Bohemia. Orders to sell rained at th< 
corbeille ; there were no buyers to be found. 

On the fourth of July Saccard did not go up to the news 


MONEY. 


205 


paper office till after six o’clock ; he did not find Jantrou, 
whose passions had for some time been leading into 
irregularities : sudden disappearances, absences of two 
or three hours, whence he returned fatigued, with troubled 
eyes, no one able to tell which was ruining him the faster, 
women or alcohol. At that hour the office was empty ; 
there remained only Dejoie, dining at the corner of his 
table, in the ante-room. And Saccard, after having writ- 
ten two letters, was going out, when, with blood in his 
face, Huret entered in a tempest, not taking time to close 
the doors after him. 

“ My good friend, my good friend.”. . . 

He was choking, he placed both hands upon his chest. 

“ I have just come from Rougon. I ran, because I had 
no cab. Finally I found one. Rougon has received a 
despatch. I have seen it. Such news, such news Î ” 

With a violent gesture Saccard stopped him, and 
hastened to close the door, having noticed Dejoie already 
prowling about, with ears on the alert. 

“ Well, what?” 

“ Well, the emperor of Austria yields Venice to the 
emperor of the French, accepting him as a mediator, and 
the latter will apply to the kings of Prussia and Italy to 
bring about an armistice.” 

There was a moment of silence. 

“ That means peace, then ? ” 

“ Evidently.” 

Saccard, struck but still without an idea, let an oath 
escape him. 

“ Thunder of God ! and the whole Bourse is on the 
decline ! ” 

Then, mechanically : 

“ And this news, does no one know it yet ? ” 

“ No, the despatch is confidential, the note will not ap- 
pear to-morrow even in the Moniteur. Paris surely will 
know nothing for twenty-four hours yet.” 

Then came the thunderbolt, the sudden illumination. 
He ran again to the door, and opened it to see if any one 
was listening. And he was beside himself, he came back 


20 6 


MONEY. 


to plant himself in front of the deputy, seizing him by the 
two lapels of his coat. 

“Silence! not so loud! We are the masters, if Gun- 
dermann and his band are not warned. Do you hear? 
Not a word, not to a single person in the world ! not to 
your friends, or to your wife! By a great piece of luck 
Jantrou is not here ; we shall be the only ones to know, we 
shall have time to act. 

“ Oh ! I do not mean to work for myself alone. You 
are in it, our colleagues of the Universal are in it also. 
But several cannot keep a secret. All is lost if the slight- 
est indiscretion is committed to-morrow before the open- 
ing of the Bourse.” 

Huret, greatly agitated, upset by the grandeur of the 
stroke which they were about to attempt, promised to be 
absolutely dumb. And they divided the work, deciding 
that the campaign must be begun at once. Saccard had 
already picked up his hat, when a question came to his 
lips. 

“Then Rougon charged you to bring me this news?” 

“ To be sure.” 

He had hesitated, he was lying: the despatch simply 
lay upon the minister’s desk, where he had had the indis- 
cretion to read it, having been left alone for a minute. 
But, as his interest lay in a cordial understanding between 
the two brothers, this lie then seemed to him very adroit, 
especially as he knew them to be little desirous of seeing 
each other and talking of these things. 

“ Well,” declared Saccard, “ there is nothing to be said ; 
he has been agreeable this time, surely. And now to 
work ! ” 

In the ante-room there was still no one but Dejoie, who 
had tried to hear but had grasped nothing distinctly. 
Nevertheless they felt his fevérishness ; he had scented 
the enormous prey that was passing through the air ; so 
agitated was he by this odor of money that he went to 
the window of the landing to see them cross the court- 
yard. 

The difficulty lay in the necessity of acting quickly, 
with the greatest prudence. Accordingly they left each 


MONEY. 


207 


other in the street : Huret charged himself with the petty 
Bourse of the evening, while Saccard, in spite of the late- 
ness of the hour, started out in search of remisiers , coulis- 
siers, brokers, to give orders to buy. Only he desired to 
divide these orders, to scatter them as much as possible, 
through fear of arousing suspicion; and, above all, he 
wished to appear to meet people, instead of hunting them 
up at their homes, which would have seemed singular. 
Chance served him admirably ; on the boulevard he met 
the broker Jacoby, with whom he joked, and whom he 
charged with a heavy operation, without causing him too 
much astonishment. A hundred steps farther on, he fell 
upon a tall blonde girl, whom he knew to be the mistress 
of another broker, Delarocque, Jacoby’s brother-in-law; 
and, as she said that she expected to see him that night, 
he charged her to hand him two words written upon a 
card. Then, knowing that Mazaud was going that night 
to a banquet of old school fellows, he managed to be at 
the restaurant, where he changed the positions which 
that very day he had ordered him to take. But, by the 
luckiest chance of all, he was accosted at midnight, just 
as he was going home, by Massias, who was coming out 
of the Variétés. They walked together in the direction 
of the Rue Saint-Lazare ; it gave him an opportunity to 
pose as an eccentric who believed in a rise of stocks, oh ! 
not immediately; so that he finally charged him with 
numerous orders to buy, for Nathansohn and other coulis- 
siers, saying that he was acting in behalf of a group of 
friends, which was true, in fact ! When he went to bed, 
he had arranged for the purchase of more than five mill- 
ions of stocks in anticipation of the rise. 

The next morning, at seven o’clock, Huret was at Sac- 
card’s to tell him how he had operated at the petty 
Bourse, in front of the Passage de l’Opéra, on the side- 
walk, where he had bought as much as possible, and yet 
with moderation, in order not to cause too marked a rise 
in the quotations. His orders amounted to a million, and 
both, deeming the stroke much too modest, resolved to 
enter again upon the campaign. They had the morning 
before them. But first they threw themselves upon the 


208 


MONEY. 


newspapers, trembling lest they might find the news in 
them, some note, a single line that would upset their com- 
bination. No ! the press knew nothing, it was wholly 
devoted to the war, filled up with despatches, long de- 
tails, regarding the battle of Sadowa. If no report leaked 
out before two o’clock in the afternoon, if they had an 
hour to themselves at the Bourse, or even half an hour, 
the stroke was made, they would sweep away everything 
from the children of Israel, as Saccard said. And again 
they separated, each one running in his own direction to 
enlist other millions in the battle. 

Saccard spent the morning in tramping up and down 
the pavements, sniffing the air, feeling such a necessity of 
walking that he discharged his carriage after his first trip. 
He entered Kolb’s, where the jingling of the gold was a 
delight to his ear, as well as a promise of victory ; and he 
had the strength to say nothing to the banker, who knew 
nothing. Then he went up to Mazaud’s, not to give a 
new order, but simply to feign anxiety regarding that 
which he had placed the night before. Here too they 
were still in utter ignorance. The little Flory alone 
caused him some anxiety by the persistence with which 
he hovered about him : the sole cause was the profound 
admiration of the young clerk for the financial intelligence 
of the manager of the Universal : and as Mademoiselle 
Chuchu was beginning to cost him a great deal, he risked 
some little operations, and desired to know the orders of 
his great man, in order to follow his play. 

Finally, after a hurried breakfast at Champeaux’, where 
he had had the profound joy of listening to the pessimis- 
tic wails of Moser and of Pillerault himself, predicting a 
new tumble in stocks, Saccard, at half past twelve, found 
himself in the Place de la Bourse. He desired, according 
to his expression, to see the world arrive. The heat was 
overwhelming, a burning sun fell perpendicularly, whiten- 
ing the steps, whose reflections heated the peristyle with 
the oppressive warmth of an oven ; and the empty chairs 
cracked in these blinding flames, while the speculators, 
standing, sought the narrow shadows cast by the columns. 
Under a tree in the garden he noticed Busch and the 


MONEY. 


209 


Mechain, who had begun to talk with each other eagerly 
on seeing him ; it even seemed to him that both were on 
the point of approaching him, and that then they recon- 
si ere . could it be, then, that they knew something, 
these low ragpickers of .values fallen into the gutter on 
the continual hunt ? For a moment he shuddered. But 
a voice called him, and he recognized on a bench Mau- 
gendre and Captain Chave, both quarrelling, for the 
former had now nothing but ridicule for the miserable 
little play of the Captain, this louis won in cash, as if at 
the back of a country café, after hard-fought games of 
piquet : come, to-day could he not risk a serious opera- 
tion . Was not the decline certain, as clear as the noon- 
day sun ? And he called Saccard to witness: would not 
stocks fall ? He had taken a strong position in expecta- 
tion of the fall, so convinced of it that he would have staked 
his fortune upon it. Thus directly questioned, Saccard 
answered with smiles and vague tosses of the head, feeling 
remorse at not warning this poor man, whom he had 
known so industrious and clear-headed when he sold awn- 
ings ; but he had sworn to absolute silence, he had the 
ferocity of the gambler who does not wish to disturb 
his luck. And just then something distracted his atten- 
tion : the Baroness Sandorff’s coupé passed, he followed it 
with his eyes, and saw it stop this time in the Rue de la 
Banque. Suddenly he thought of the Baron Sandorff, 
counsellor to the Austrian embassy : the Baroness surely 
knew ; she was going to ruin everything by some feminine 
stupidity. Already he had crossed the street, and was 
prowling around the coupé, which stood motionless and 
silent, with a dead air, the coachman sitting stiffly on his 
seat. But one of the carriage windows dropped, and he 
bowed and gallantly approached. 

“ Well, Monsieur Saccard, we are still on the downward 
course ? ” 

He thought it was a trap. 

“ Why, yes, Madame.” 

Then, as she looked at him anxiously, with that un- 
steadiness of the eyes which he well knew in gamblers, 


210 


MONEY. 


he understood that she did not know anything. . The 
warm blood rushed to his head, flooding it with delight. 

“Then, Monsieur, you have nothing to tell me? 

“ Indeed, Madame, nothing but what you already know 
doubtless.” 

And he left her, thinking: “You have not been agree- 
able ; it will amuse me to see you drink a drop. Perhaps 
another time it will make you more amiable.” Never had 
she seemed to him more desirable ; he was certain of hav- 
ing her, at his hour. 

But, as he came back to the Place de la Bourse, the 
sight of Gundermann, in the distance, coming from the 
Rue Vivienne, sent a new shudder to his heart. Though 
lessened by the distance, it was really he, with his slow 
gait, his head which he carried erect and pale, without 
looking at any one, like a man alone, in his royalty, in the 
midst of the crowd. And he followed him with terror, 
interpreting each of his movements. Having seen him 
approached by Nathansohn, he thought all was lost. But 
the coulissier having retired wdth an air of discomfiture, 
he recovered hope. The banker certainly seemed to 
show his every-day air. Then, suddenly, his heart leaped 
with joy : Gundermann had just entered the confectioner’s 
to make his purchase of bonbons for his granddaughters ; 
and this was a sure sign, never did he go in there at 
critical times. 

One o’clock struck ; the bell announced the opening of 
the market. It was a memorable Bourse, one of those 
great days of disaster, one of those disasters caused by a 
rise, so rare, the memory of which remains legendary. 
In the overwhelming heat at the beginning prices went 
lower yet. Then sudden, isolated purchases, like the 
fire of sharpshooters before the beginning of the battle, 
caused astonishment. But the market remained dull 
just the same, amid the general distrust. The purchases 
multiplied, started up in every direction, at the coulisse , 
on the floor ; nothing could be heard but the voices of 
Nathansohn under the colonnade, Mazaud, Jacoby, Dela- 
rocque at the corbeille, shouting that they would take any 
stock at any price ; and then there was a tremor, an in- 


MONEY. 


211 


fusfon of fhf ’• 11 r° uî 6 C anng t0 ven ture, in the con- 
shVhtlv So, iT nS 16 chan S e - Quotations had risen 
■f*'™,’ Sac 5 ard had t lm e to give new orders to Massias, 
for Nathansohn. He also asked the little Flory, who was 

hfoV, ng S® rU V° hand Mazau d a fiche, upon which 
he charged him to buy, to buy continually; so that Florv 
having read the fiche, seized with a, fit of 'confidence, fol- 
lowed his great man’s play, and bought on his own 
account And at that minute, quarter before two, the 
thunderbolt fell in open Bourse : Austria yielded Venice 
to the emperor, the war was over. Whence came this 
news ? No one knew ; it came from all lips at once, from 
the very paving stones. Some one had brought it * all 
repeated it, in a clamor that swelled with a loud voice of. 
an equinoctial tide. By furious leaps the quotations 
began to mount, amid the frightful uproar. Before 
the stroke of the bell for closing, they had risen forty, 
ntty francs. It was an inexpressible conflict, one of those 
confused battles in which all rush, soldiers and captains 
to save their skins, deafened, blinded, with no clear sense 
of the situation. Foreheads streamed with sweat, the 
implacable sun poured down upon the steps, wrapping 
the Bourse in a blazing flame. 

And at the liquidation, when they could estimate the 
disaster, it seemed immense. The battle-field was strewn 
with the wounded and the ruined. Moser, the bear, was 
among *the most severely wounded. Pillerault ’paid 
dearly for his weakness, the only time that he had ever 
despaired of a rise. Maugendre lost fifty thousand 
francs, his first serious loss, such a crushing blow that 
both he and his wife had to take to bed. The Baroness 
Sandorff had to pay such heavy balances that Delcambre, 
it was said, refused to furnish the money; and she turned 
white with anger and hatred at the very name of her hus- 
band, the. counsellor of the embassy, who had had the 
despatch in his hands before Rougon himself, without- 
saying anything to her about it. But the high bank, the 
Jewish bank, especially, had sustained a terrible defeat, a 
real massacre. It was affirmed that Gundermann, for his 
share alone, lost eight millions. And this astounded 


212 


MONEY. 


people ; why had he not been warned, he, the undisputed 
master of the market, to whom cabinet ministers were 
but clerks, and who held States in his sovereign depend- 
ence? There had undoubtedly been one of those extra- 
ordinary combinations of circumstances which constitute 
the great strokes of chance. It was an unforeseen, im- 
becile undermining, outside of all reason and of all logic. 

Nevertheless the story spread; Saccard passed for a 
great man. With one stroke of the rake he had just 
gathered in almost the whole of the money which the 
bears had lost. Personally he had pocketed two millions. 
The rest would enter into the vaults of the Universal, or 
rather disappear in the hands of the directors. With 
great difficulty he finally persuaded Madame Caroline 
that Hamelin’s share of this plunder so legitimately taken 
from the Jews was a million. Huret, having been in the 
job, had cut off his slice royally. As for the others, the 
Daigremonts, the Marquis de Bohains, they did not wait 
to be asked. All voted thanks and congratulations to the 
eminent manager. And one heart especially burned with 
gratitude to Saccard, that of Flory, who had made ten 
thousand francs, a fortune ; enough to enable him to live 
with Chuchu in a little suite of rooms in the Rue Con- 
dorcet and go together in the evening to join Gustave 
Sédille and Germaine Cœur at the expensive restaurants. 
At the newspaper office it was found necessary to award 
Jantrou a gratuity, as he was very angry at ntft having 
been warned. Dejoie alone remained melancholy, for he 
had to keep the eternal regret of having felt, one evening, i 
fortune passing through the air, mysterious and vague, 
uselessly. 

The first triumph of Saccard seemed to be like a flow- 
ering of the empire at its zenith. He entered into the 
splendor of the reign, he was one of its glorious reflec- 
tions. That very evening, when he towered among the 
fallen fortunes, at the hour when the Bourse was nothing 
but a gloomy field of rubbish, entire Paris decorated and 
illuminated as for a grand victory, and festivities at the 
Tuileries, rejoicings in the street, celebrated Napoleon 
III., the master of Europe, so high, so great, that empe- 


money. 


213 


rors and kings chose him as judge in their quarrels, and 
intrusted to him provinces for him to dispose of between 
them. In. the Chamber, to be sure, voices had protested, 
prophets of misfortune confusedly announced a terrible 
future, Prussia increased by all that France had tolerated, 
Austria beaten, Italy ungrateful. But laughs and shouts 
of anger stifled these anxious voices, and Paris, the centre 
of the world, flamed in all its avenues and all its monu- 
ments, on the morrow of Sadowa, pending the arrival of 
the dark and icy nights, the nights without gas, traversed 
by the red fuse of the shells. That night, Saccard, over- 
flowing with his success, walked the streets, the Place de 
la Concorde, the Champs-Elysées, all the sidewalks where 
lampions were burning. Borne along in the rising flood 
of promenaders, his eyes blinded by this brilliancy of 
day, he could believe that they illuminated in his honor: 
was not he, too, the unexpected conqueror, rising amidst 
disasters? A single annoyance had just spoiled his joy, 
the anger of Rougon, who, terrible, had driven away 
Huret, when he had learned the origin of the stroke of 
the Bourse. The great man, then, had not shown him- 
self a good brother by sending him the news? 'Would 
he have to dispense with this high patronage, would he 
even have to attack the omnipotent minister ? Suddenly, 
opposite the palace of the Legion of Honor, surmounted 
by a gigantic cross of fire, glowing against the black sky, 
he formed the bold resolution, for the day when he should 
feel his back sufficiently strong. And, intoxicated by 
the songs of the crowd and the flapping of the flags, he 
returned to the Rue Saint-Lazare through flaming Paris. 

Two months afterward, in September, Saccard, made 
audacious by his victory over Gundermann, decided that 
a new impulse must be given to the Universal. At the 
stockholders’ meeting which had been held at the end of 
April, the balance-sheet presented showed, for the year 
1864, a profit of nine millions, including the premium of 
twenty francs on each of the fifty thousand new shares at 
the time of the doubling of the capital. The expenses of 
organization had been entirely paid, the stockholders had 
had their five per cent, and the directors their ten per 


MONEY. 


214 

cent., leaving for the surplus a sum of five millions, be- 
side the usual ten per cent. ; and with the remaining mill- 
ion they had succeeded in distributing a dividend of ten 
francs per share. It was a fine showing, for a society 
that had been in existence but two years. But Saccard 
proceeded with feverish strokes, applying to financial 
ground the method of intensive culture, heating and over- 
heating the soil, at the risk of burning the crop ; and he 
prevailed, first upon the directors and then upon a spe- 
cial stockholders’ meeting held on the fifteenth of Sep- 
tember, to accept a second increase of capital : they 
doubled it again, raising it from fifty to a hundred mill- 
ions, creating one hundred thousand new shares, exclu- 
sively reserved for the stockholders, share for share. But 
this time the shares were issued at six hundred and sev- 
enty-five francs, or at a premium of one hundred and sev- 
enty-five, which was to be paid into the surplus. The 
growing successes, the fortunate strokes already made, 
and, above all, the great enterprises which the Universal 
was going to launch, were the reasons invoked to justify 
this enormous increase of capital, thus twice doubled ; 
for the house must be given an importance and solidity 
proportionate to the interests which it represented. 
Moreover, the result was immediate : the shares, which 
for months had remained stationary at the Bourse, at an 
average figure of seven hundred and fifty, rose to nine 
hundred in three days. 

Hamelin had not been able to return from the Orient 
to preside over the special stockholders’ meeting, .and he 
wrote his sister an anxious letter, in which he expressed 
his fears regarding this fashion of driving the Universal 
at a mad, galloping pace. He clearly divined that false 
declarations had again been made at the office of the no- 
tary, Lelorrain. In fact all the new stock had not been 
legally subscribed ; the society had remained proprietor 
of the shares refused by the stockholders; and, the pay- 
ments not being made, a trick of hand-writing had passed 
these shares to the Sabatani account. Furthermore 
other prête-noms, clerks, directors, had enabled it to sub- 
scribe for its own issue ; so that it then held nearly thirty 


MONEY. 


215 


thousand of its shares, representing a sum of thirteen 
millions and a half. Besides being illegal, the situation 
might become dangerous, for experience has demonstrated 
that every house of credit that speculates in its own stock 
is lost. But nevertheless Madame Caroline answered her 
brother gayly, joking him on having become the trembler 
of to-day, so that she, who was formerly the suspicious 
one, was obliged to reassure him. She said that she was 
always on the watch, saw nothing suspicious, was aston- 
ished, on the contrary, at the great things, clear and log- 
ical, which she was witnessing. The truth was that she 
naturally knew nothing of that which they concealed 
from her, and that, moreover, her admiration for Saccard, 
the feeling of sympathy with which she was filled by this 
little man’s activity and intelligence, blinded her. 

In December the stock was quoted at more than a 
thousand francs. And then, in face of the triumphant 
Universal, the high bank became agitated ; Gundermann 
was to be seen on the Place de la Bourse, with a dis- 
tracted air, entering the confectioner’s to buy bonbons, 
with his automatic step. He had paid his loss of eight 
millions without a murmur, not a single one of his ac- 
quaintances having surprised upon his lips a word of 
anger and resentment. When he thus lost, which rarely 
happened, he usually said that it was well done, that it 
would teach him to be less heedless; whereat they 
smiled, for heedlessness in Gundermann was scarcely im- 
aginable. But this time the hard lesson must have re- 
mained upon his heart ; the idea of having been beaten 
by this dare-devil of a Saccard, this passionate madman, 
when he himself was so cold, so thoroughly a master of 
men and things, was surely unendurable. So from that 
time He began to watch him, certain of his revenge. See- 
ing the infatuation with which the Universal was wel- 
comed, he had straightway taken his position as an 
observer who is convinced that too sudden successes, 
false prosperities, lead to the worst disasters. Neverthe- 
less, the figure of a thousaand francs was still reasonable ; 
and he waited before preparing for the fall. It was his 
theory that events were not to be precipitated at the 


21 6 


MONEY. 


Bourse, that at most one could foresee them and profit 
by them upon their appearance. Logic alone reigned ; 
in speculation as in everything else, truth was omnipo- 
tent. • As soon as prices became too much exaggerated, 
they would collapse : therefore the decline was simply a 
mathematical necessity, he would simply be there to wit- 
ness the realization of his calculation and pocket his 
gain. And already he had fixed upon the figure of fif- 
teen hundred francs for his entrance upon the war. At 
fifteen hundred he would begin to sell Universal, mod- 
erately at first, more at each liquidation, in accordance 
with a plan determined upon in advance. No need of a 
syndicate of bears, he alone would suffice, prudent people 
would clearly sense the truth and follow his play. This 
noisy Universal, this Universal which so rapidly ob- 
structed the market and rose like a menace before the 
Jewish high bank, he waited coldly till it should crack of 
itself, in order to throw it to the ground with a shove of 
his shoulder. 

Later it was said that it was Gundermann himself who 
secretly facilitated Saccard’s purchase of an old building 
in the Rue de Londres, which the latter intended to 
demolish, in order to raise on the site the building of his 
dreams, the palace in which he would gorgeously lodge 
his work. He had succeeded in convincing the directors 
and the workmen began operations in the middle of 
October. 

On the day when the corner-stone was laid, with great 
ceremony, Saccard was at the office of the newspaper 
about four o’clock waiting for Jantrou, who had gone to 
carry reports of the solemnity to friendly sheets, when he 
received a visit from the Baroness Sandorff. At first she 
had asked for the editor-in-chief, then had fallen, a§ if by 
chance upon the manager of the Universal, who gallantly 
placed himself at her disposition for all the information 
that she might want, taking her into his private room at 
the rear end of the corridor. And there, at the first 
brutal assault, she yielded, upon the divan, like a girl of 
the streets, resigned in advance to the adventure 

But a complication arose. Madame Caroline, who was 


MONEY. 


2l7 


doing some errands in the Montmartre quarter, happened 
to go up to the newspaper office. She ran in occasionally 
in this way, to give a reply to Saccard, or simply to get 
news. Moreover she knew Dejoie, who was indebted to 
her for his place ; she always stopped to talk a minute with 
him, made happy by the gratitude that he evinced. On 
this occasion, not finding him in the ante-room, she passed 
into the passage-way and ran against him just as he was 
coming back from listening at the door. Now this was a 
disease with him. He trembled with fever, he glued his 
ear to all the keyholes to surprise the secrets of the 
Bourse. But what he had heard and understood this 
time had embarrassed him a little ; and he was smiling 
vaguely. 

“ He is in, isn’t he? ” said Madame Caroline, trying to 
pass him. 

He had stopped her, surprised, stammering, not having 
time to lie. 

“Yes, he is in, but you cannot enter.” 

“ What ! I cannot enter ? ” 

“ No, he is with a lady.” 

She turned very pale, and he, knowing nothing of the 
situation, winked, elongated his neck, and indicated the 
adventure by an expressive pantomime. 

“ Who is this lady ? ” she asked, curtly. 

He had no reason to hide the name from her, his bene- 
factress. He leaned over toward her ear. 

“ The Baroness Sandorff. Oh ! it is a long time since 
she began to hover around here ! ” 

For a moment Madame Caroline stood motionless. In 
the darkness of the passage-way the livid pallor of her 
face could not be detected. She had just felt, in the 
centre of her heart, a pain so keen, so cruel, that she did 
not remember ever to have suffered so much, and it was 
the stupor caused by this frightful wound that nailed her 
there. What should she do now, break in this door, rush 
upon this woman, and create a scandal by slapping the 
faces of both of them ? 

And as she stood there, dazed, and still deprived of 
will, she was approached gayly by Marcelle, who had 


MONEY. 


2l8 

come up for her husband. The young woman had lately 
made her acquaintance. 

“What! it is you, dear Madame! Just imagine! we 
are going to the theatre to-night. Oh ! it is a long story, 
it need not cost us much. Paul has discovered a little 
restaurant, where we regale ourselves at thirty-five sous 
each.” 

Jordan came up ; he interrupted his wife with a laugh. 

“ Two dishes, a bottle of wine, and all the bread you 
want.” 

“ And then,” continued Marcelle, “ we do not take a 
carriage ; it is so pleasant to walk home when it is very 
late. To-night, as we are rich, we shall buy an almond 
cake for twenty sous, to carry home. A perfectly reck- 
less feast ! ” 

She went away, delighted, on her husband’s arm. And 
Madame Caroline, who had come back with them into 
the ante-room, had regained strength to smile, a pale and 
dying smile. 

“ Have a good time,” she murmured, in a trembling 
voice. 

Then she went away in her turn. She loved Saccard ; 
she was filled with astonishment and grief, as if by a wound 
which she did not wish to show. 


VIL 


Two months later, on a gray and mild November after- 
noon, Madame Caroline went up to the work-room, 
directly after breakfast, to go to work. Her brother, then 
in Constantinople, where he was attending to the grand 
affair of the Oriental railways, had charged her to review 
all the notes formerly taken by him on their first journey, 
and then to draw up a sort of memoir, to serve as a his- 
torical résumé of the question ; and for two weeks she had 
been trying to occupy herself entirely in this task. On 
this day it was so warm that she let the fire die out and 
opened the window, whence she looked for a moment, 
before sitting down, at the tall bare trees of the Beau- 
villiers mansion, of a purplish hue against the pale sky. 

She had been writing nearly half an hour, when the 
need of a document led her off into a long search, among 
the papers heaped up on her table. She rose, went to 
stir up other papers, and came back to sit down again, 
with hands full ; and, as she was turning over the loose 
sheets, she fell upon some religious pictures, an illumi- 
nated view of the Holy Sepulchre, a prayer framed in the 
instruments of the Passion, a sovereign assurance of 
salvation in those moments of distress when the soul is in 
danger. Then she remembered ; her brother had bought 
theçe pictures at Jerusalem, pious child that he was. A 
sudden emotion seized her, tears moistened her cheeks. 
Ah ! this brother, so intelligent, so long unappreciated, 
how happy he was in believing, in not smiling at this 
simple Holy Sepulchre good to decorate a bonbon box, 
in deriving serene power from his faith in the efficacy of 
this prayer rhymed in confectioner s verses ! She saw him 
again, too trustful, too easily duped perhaps, but so honest, 


220 


MONEY. 


so tranquil, without a particle of revolt, without even a 
struggle ! And she who had for two months been strug- 
gling and suffering, she who believed no longer, burned 
up with reading, devastated with reasoning, how ardently 
she wished, in hours of weakness, that she had remained 
simple and ingenuous like him, so that she could put to 
sleep her bleeding heart by thrice repeating, morning and 
evening, the childish prayer which the nails and the spear, 
the crown and the sponge of the Passion surrounded ! 

On the morrow of the brutal hazard that had told her 
of Saccard’s liaison with the Baroness Sandorff, she had 
stiffened herself with all the power of her will to resist the 
desire to watch them and know for herself. She was not 
this man s wife, she did not wish to be his passionate 
mistress, jealous to the point of scandal ; and it was her 
misery that she continued not to refuse herself in their 
hourly intimacy. This was due to the peaceful, simply 
affectionate way in which she had at first considered their 
adventure: a friendship that had ended inevitably in a 
giving of the person, as happens between man and woman. 
She was no longer at the age of twenty ; she had become 
very tolerant, after the stern experience of her marriage. 
At thirty-six, being so wise, believing herself free from 
illusions, could she not close her eyes, conduct herself 
more like a mother than like a lover, toward this friend to 
whom she had tardily resigned herself, in a moment of 
moral absence, and who had himself singularly passed the 
age of a hero? Sometimes she repeated that too much 
importance was accorded to these sexual relations, often 
simple meetings which afterwards embarrassed one’s entire 
existence. However, she was the first to smile at the im- 
morality of her remark, for in that case would not all faults 
be permitted, all women with all men ? And yet how 
many women are reasonable in consenting to share with 
a rival! To what an extent current custom prevails over 
happy good-nature in regard to the jealous idea of sole 
and total possession ! But these were only theoretical 
ways of making life endurable ; in vain did she force her- 
self to abnegation, continue to be the devoted stewardess 
the seivant of superior intelligence who is willing to give 


MONEY. 


221 


her body when she has given her heart and her brain : a 
revolt of her flesh, of her passion, roused her ; she suffered 
frightfully from not knowing all, from not breaking 
violently after hurling in Saccard’s face the frightful wrong 
that he did her. She had controlled herself nevertheless, 
to the point of keeping silent, remaining calm and smiling; 
and never in her existence, which had formerly been so 
hard, had she needed more strength. 

A moment longer she looked at the religious pictures, 
which she still held, with her sorrowful smile of incredu- 
lity, thoroughly agitated by her feeling of tenderness. 
But she no longer saw them ; by an involuntary and in- 
cessant action of her mind, which returned instinctively 
to play the spy from the moment that she ceased to keep 
it occupied, she again called up the vision of what Saccard 
perhaps had done the day before, of what he was doing 
that very day. He, however, seemed to be leading his 
usual life, in the morning the rush of his business man- 
agement, in the afternoon the Bourse, in the evening in- 
vitations to dinner, first nights at the theatres, a life of 
pleasure, association with actresses, of whom she was not 
jealous. And yet she clearly felt that some new interest 
absorbed him, something that filled hours formerly other- 
wise occupied ; undoubtedly this woman, meetings at 
some place which she shielded herself from knowing. 
This made her suspicious and distrustful ; she again be- 
gan, in spite of herself, to “ play the gendarme,” as her 
brother laughingly expressed it, even regarding the affairs 
of the Universal, which she had ceased to watch, so great 
had her confidence become for a moment. Irregularities 
struck her and grieved her. Then she was greatly sur- 
prised to find that she made light of them after all, that 
she had not the strength to speak or to act, so filled was 
her heart with a single anguish, this treason to which she 
would have been willing to consent and which stifled her. 
And, ashamed at feeling the tears flow again, she hid the 
pictures, with a mortal regret that she could not go to 
kneel and find relief in a church, shedding for hours all 
the tears in her body. 

For ten minutes Madame Caroline, regaining calmness, 


222 


MONEY. 


had been at work again upon her memoir, when the valet 
de chambre came to tell her that Charles, a coachman who 
had been discharged the day before, absolutely insisted 
on speaking to Madame. Saccard, after having hired 
him himself, had caught him stealing oats. She hesitated, 
and then consented to receive him. 

A tall, handsome fellow, with shaven face and neck, 
swaying his body with the confident and foppish air of 
men whom women pay, Charles presented himself inso- 
lently. 

“ Madame, I come in regard to the two shirts which the 
laundress has lost and which she refuses to pay me for. 
Surely Madame does not suppose that I can put up with 
such a loss. And, as Madame is responsible, I wish 
Madame to pay me for my shirts. Yes, I want fifteen 
francs. 


In these household questions she was very severe. Per- 
haps she would have given fifteen francs in order to avoid 
discussion. But the effrontery of this man, caught the 
day before with his hand in the sack, disgusted her. 

I ^ OU n °thing, I will not give you a sou. Be- 
sides, Monsieur has cautioned me, absolutely forbidden 
me to do anything for you.” 

Then Charles advanced, with a threatening air 

w‘^m Monsi u Ur sait ? that! 1 sus pected as much. 
Well, Monsieur has made a mistake, because we are going- 

l? f ï? h * 1 am no } stu pid enough not to have noticed 
that Madame was the mistress.” 

Blushing, Madame Caroline rose, intending to drive 
him out. But he did not give her time ; he continued in 
a louder voice : 


MoA d peihap r Madame will be glad to know where 
Monsieur goes, from four to six, two and three times a 
week, when he is sure of finding the lady alone.” 

She had suddenly turned very pale ; all her blood 
rushed back to her heart. With a violent gesture she 
attempted to push back into his throat this information 
which she had been avoiding for two months 
“ I absolutely forbid you ”... 

But his voice drowned hers, 


MONEY. 


223 


“ It is Madame the Baroness Sandorff. Monsieur Dek 
cambre keeps her, and, in order to possess her at his ease» 
he has rented a little ground-floor in the Rue Caumartin, 
almost at the corner of the Rue Saint-Nicholas, in a house 
where there is a green-grocer’s shop. And Monsieur goes 
there to keep his place warm for him.” 

She had extended her arm toward the bell, to have this 
man thrown out ; but she remembered that he certainly 
would continue in presence of the servants. 

“ Oh ! when I say warm ! I have a friend there, 
Clarisse, the maid, who has watched them together, and 
who has seen her mistress, a real icicle, doing all sorts of 
dirty tricks with him.” 

“ Hold your tongue, wretch ! There, take your fifteen 
francs ! ” 

And, with a gesture of unspeakable disgust, she handed 
him the money, seeing that it was the only way to get 
rid of him. And indeed he became polite again imme- 
diately. 

“ I wish nothing but good to Madame. The house 
where there is a green-grocer’s shop. The steps at the 
rear of the court-yard. To-day, Thursday, at four o’clock, 
if Madame wishes to surprise them.” 

She pushed him toward the door, without parting her 
livid lips. 

“ Especially as to-day Madame perhaps would witness 
something amusing. Not likely that Clarisse would re- 
main in such a box ! And when servants have had good 
masters, they like to leave them a little souvenir, you 
know. Good afternoon, Madame.” 

At last he was gone. Madame Caroline stood motion- 
less for a few seconds, thinking, understanding that a sim- 
ilar scene threatened Saccard. Then, her strength failing 
her, with a long groan, she sank down at her work-table ; 
and the tears that had so long been choking her flowed 
in streams. 

The fact was that this Clarisse, a thin blonde, had just 
betrayed her mistress by offering Delcambre an opportu- 
nity to surprise her with another man, in the very apart- 
ments which he paid for. At first she had demanded five 


224 


MONEY. 


hundred francs ; but, as he was very avaricious, she had 
been forced after some haggling, to content herself with 
two hundred francs, payable from hand to hand, at the 
moment when she should open the chamber door. She 
slept there, in a little room behind the dressing-room. 
The Baroness had engaged her out of delicacy, to avoid 
giving the care of the apartments to the janitress. The 
most of the time she lived in idleness, having nothing to 
do between the meetings, in the depths of this empty suite 
obliterating herself however, disappearing, as soon as 
Delcambre or Saccard arrived. It was here that she had 
made the acquaintance of Charles, who had long been 
commg at night, to occupy with her their masters’ roomy 
bed, still disordered by the day’s debauchery; and in fact 
it was she who had recommended him to Saccard as a very 
good and honest fellow. Since his discharge she shared 
his resentment, especially as her mistress gave her dirty 
work to do and she had an offer of a place where she could 

frlf L ?r% m0re c m °, nt « At first Charles w * s hed to 
write to the Baron Sandorff ; but she thought it more 

amusing and more lucrative to organize a surprise with 
Delcambre. And on this Thursday,' having made all the 
preparations for the grand stroke, she was waiting for 

c A j f ° ur o’clock, when Saccard arrived, the Baroness 
Sandorff was already lying on the reclining-chair, before 
the fire. She was usually very prompt, like a business 
woman who knows the value of time. At first he had 
been disappointed in not finding the ardent lover that he 
hoped in this dark woman with blue eyelids and the pro 
voking carriage of a passionate Bacchante. She was 
marble entirely absorbed in gambling, the anguish of 
which at least heated her blood. Then, seeing W she 
had curiosity and no disgust, he had depraved her. She 
talked stocks and drew “ tips ” from him ; and as she had 
been winning since her liaison began, largely by chance 
undoubtedly she treated Saccard a little like a fetich an 

fuck ri brings. UP Wh ‘ Ch ° ne keepS and even kisses for the 
Clar sse had made such a big fire on this occasion that 


money. 


225 

they did not go to bed, preferring to remain before the 
leaping flames, upon the reclining-chair. Outside it was 
growing dark. But the blinds were closed the curtaTns 
-arefully drawn ; and two large lamps, with ground-glass 
globes but no shades, shed a garish light upon them. 

Scarcely had Saccard entered when Delcambre in turn 
stepped from his carriage. Attorney-General Delcambre 
personally in close relations with the emperor and in à 
tair way to become prime minister, was a thin and yellow 
man of fifty, with a tall and solemn figure, a shaven face 
traversed by deep wrinkles, and an expression of stern 
severity. His hard nose, like an eagle’s beak, showed no 
weakness, no disposition to forgive. And when he went 
up the steps, at his ordinary pace, measured and grave 
he maintained all his dignity, the cold air that he wore in 
the court room on great occasions. No one in the house 
knew him. He seldom came except at night-fall 

Classe was waiting for him in the little ante-room. 

If Monsieur will follow me. And I strongly urge 
Monsieur not to make any noise.” 

He hesitated ; why not enter through the door opening 
directly into the chamber ? But in a very low voice she 
explained to him that the doof was surely bolted, that 
he would have to break it in, and that Madame, warned 
would have time to arrange herself. She had devised a 
very simple method. Her own room formerly communi- 
cated with the dressing-room by a door that was now 
kept locked; and, as the key had been thrown into a 
drawer, she had only to get it and open the door ; so that, 
thanks to this door condemned and forgotten, it was 
possible to noiselessly enter the dressing-room, which was 
itself separated from the chamber only by a portiere. 
Certainly Madame was expecting nobody from that di- 
rection. 

“ Let Monsieur trust entirely to me. It is for my in- 
terest to make the thing successful, isn’t it?” 

She slipped through the half-open door, and disap- 
peared for a moment, leaving Delcambre alone in this 
servant’s little room, with its bed in disorder, its basin of 
soapy water, and from which she had removed her trunk 


226 


MONEY. 


that morning, in order that she might be off the moment 
the stroke should be effected. Then she came back, 
softly closing the door after her. 

“ Monsieur must wait a little bit. It is net yet time. 
They are talking.” 

Delcambre remained dignified, without a word, erect 
and motionless under the vaguely bantering gaze of this 
girl who was scrutinizing him. Nevertheless he was 
getting weary; a nervous twitching contracted the left 
half of his face, in the suppressed rage which was rising 
to his head in a flood. The furious male, the ogreish ap- 
petites, that were hidden within him, beneath the icy 
severity of his professional mask, were beginning to growl 
secretly, irritated by this flesh that was being stolen from 
him. 


“ Let us be quick, let us be quick,” he repeated, with- 
out knowing what he said, his hands feverish. 

But when Clarisse, disappearing again, came back with 
a finger on her lips, she begged him to be patient a little 
longer. 

“ I assure you, Monsieur, be reasonable. In a moment 
all will be ready.” 

i Delca.mbre, suddenly feeling a weakness in his 

legs, had to sit down on the servant’s little bed. Night 
was falling; he sat thus in the half-light, while the maid 
listening, lost none of the slightest noises that came from 
the chamber, which he too heard, magnified by such a 
buzzing in his ears that they seemed to him like the tramp 
of an army on the march. 

Finally he felt Clarisse’s hand groping along his arm. 
He understood, gave her, without a word, an envelope 
into which he had slipped the promised two hundred 
trancs And she went ahead, drew aside the portiire, and 
pushed him into the chamber, sayine: 

“ See ! there they are ! ” 

Before the fire with its glowing embers, Saccard lay on 
his back, upon the rechning-chair, with nothing on but his 
shirt while the baroness was beside him, perfectly nude 
the two large lamps shining garishly upon them. 

Delcambre stood gaping, choking, for a moment, while 


MONEY. 


227 

the two others, as if thunderstruck, stupefied at seeing 
ims man enter through the dressing-room, did not budge, 
their eyes wildly expanded, he still on his back, she with 
raised head and trembling lips. 

“ Ah ! pigs ! ” finally stammered the attorney-general, 
“pigs! pigs!” 

He could think of nothing but this word ; he repeated 
it endlessly, accenting it with the same spasmodic gesture 
to give it more force. 1 hen, with a leap, the woman rose, 
bewildered in her nudity, turning hither and thither in 
search of her garments, which she had left in the dressing- 
room, where she could not go to get them, since the en- 
trance was barred ; and, having laid her hand upon a 
white petticoat that happened to be in the room, she cov- 
ered her shoulders with it, keeping the two ends of the 
waist-band between her teeth, in order to hold it more 
tightly around her neck and over her breast. The man, 
who had also left the reclining-chair, pulled down his shirt, 
seemingly very much annoyed. 

“ Pigs ! ” repeated Delcambre again, “ pigs ! in this room 
which I pay for ! ” 

And, shaking his fist at Saccard and growing more and 
more excited at the thought that such things went on 
upon a piece of furniture bought with his money, he 
raved. 

“ You are here in my premises, pig that you are ! And 
this woman is mine ; you are a pig and a thief ! ” 

Saccard, who did not get angry, would have liked to 
calm him, feeling greatly embarrassed at having to stand 
thus in his shirt and thoroughly put out by the adventure. 
But the word thief wounded him. 

“Why! Monsieur,” he answered, “when one wishes to 
have a woman to himself alone, he begins by giving her 
that of which she is in need.” 

This allusion to his avarice finished Delcambre s wrath. 
He was unrecognizable, frightful, as if the hidden human 
goat was protruding from his skin. This face, so dignified 
and cold, had suddenly reddened, and it puffed, and tume- 
fied, and advanced its furious snout. Anger released the 
carnal brute, in the frightful pain of this stirred-up filth. 


228 


MONEY. 


“Need! need! he stammered, “ need of the gutter! 
Ah ! strumpet ! ” 

And he made such a violent gesture at the Baroness that 
she was frightened. She was standing erect and motion- 
less, succeeding in veiling her bosom with the petticoat 
only by leaving her waist and thighs uncovered. Th'en, 
perceiving that this guilty nudity, thus exposed, only ex- 
asperated him the more, she drew back towards a chair 
and sat down, pressing her legs together and lifting up 
her knees, to hide all that she could. And there she sat, 
without a gesture, without a word, her head a little low- 
ered, watching the battle out of the corners of her eyes, 
like a female for whom males are disputing, and who 
awaits the result, in order to belong to the victor. 

Saccard had courageously thrown himself in front of her. 

“ You are not going to beat her, perhaps ! ” 

The two men stood face to face. 

“ Well r > Monsieur,” continued Saccard, “ this thing must 
end. We cannot quarrel like coachmen. It is very true 
I am Madame s lover. And I repeat that, if you have 
paid for the furniture here, I have paid for” . 

“What?” 

“Many things: for instance, the other day, the ten 
thousand francs due on her old account with Mazaud, 
which you had absolutely refused to settle. I have as 
many rights as you. A pig, possibly ! but a thief, ah! 
no ! That word you will take back.” 

Beside himself, Delcambre shouted : 

“ You are a thief, and I will break your head, if you do 
not quit this place on the instant.” 

But Saccard, in his turn, was getting irritated. While 
putting on his pantaloons, he protested. 

“Oh ! say, you make me tired ! I will go if I like. 
But you will not frighten me into going, my good man ! ” 

And-, when he had put on his shoes, he resolutely 
stamped his feet upon the carpet, saying : 

“ There, now I am on my feet, I remain.” 

Choking with rage, Delcambre had approached, with 
beak thrust forward. 

“ Dirty pig, will you be oh ? ” 


MONEY. 


229 


“ Not before you, old debauchee ! ” 

“ An d suppose I land my fist in your face ?” 

“ Then I will plant my foot somewhere ! ” 

Nose to nose, showing their teeth, they barked. For- 
getful of themselves, in this disappearance of their breed- 
ing, the magistrate and financier descended to a quarrel 
of drunken carters, using abominable words, which they 
hurled at each other in an increasing need of filth, as if 
spitting in each other’s face. Their voices strangled in 
their throats, they foamed with mud. 

On her chair the Baroness was still waiting till one 
should throw the other out. And already calm again, 
arranging the future, she was embarrassed only by the 
presence of the maid, whom she divined behind the por- 
tiere of the dressing-room, having stationed herself there 
to get a little satisfaction. This girl, in fact, havin 0- 
stretched out her head, with a satisfied sneer, at hearing 
gentlemen say such disgusting things, the two women saw 
each other, the mistress crouching and naked, the servant 
erect and correct, with her little flat collar ; and they ex- 
changed a flaming look, the long-standing hatred of rivals, 
in this equality of duchesses and dairy-maids when they 
have on no chemise. 

But Saccard too had seen Clarisse. He violently finished 
dressing, put on his waistcoat and came back to hurl an 
insult in Delcambre’s face, passed his left arm through his 
coat-sleeve and shouted another, passed his right arm and 
found others, and still others, taken at random. Then, 
suddenly, to end : 

“ Clarisse, come in. Open the doors, open the windows, 
that all the people in the house and all the people in the 
street may hear. Monsieur the attorney-general wishes 
it to be known that he is here, and I am going to make it 
known.” 

Delcambre, turning pale, drew back, on seeing him 
start for one of the windows, as if intending to turn the 
fastening. This terrible man was perfectly capable of 
carrying out his threat, he who mocked at scandal. 

“Ah! canaille ! canaille !” murmured the magistrate. 


230 


MONEY. 


“ You make a good pair, you and this trollop. And I 
leave her to you.” 

“ That’s right, be off ! You are not wanted here. At 
least her bills will be paid, she will weep no more from 
poverty. Stay ! would you like some money to pay your 
omnibus fare ? ” 

Under this insult Delcambre stopped a moment at the 
threshold of the dressing-room. Again he had his tall, 
thin figure, his pale face, traversed with rigid folds. He 
extended his arm and took an oath. 

“ I swear that you shall pay me for all this. Oh ! I will 
find you again, be on your guard !” 

Then he disappeared. Directly, behind him, was heard 
the flight of a skirt : it was the maid, who, through fear 
of an explanation, ran away in high glee at the thought 
of the amusing farce. 

Saccard, still under the influence of the shock, strode 
furiously to the doors, closed them, and came back to the 
chamber, where the Baroness remained nailed to her 
chair. He walked back and forth with long steps, and 
pushed back into the fireplace a brand which had fallen ; 
and then only seeing her, so queerly and incompletely 
draped, with the petticoat over her shoulders, he became 
very proper. 

“Dress yourself, my dear. And do not be agitated. 
It is annoying, but it is nothing, nothing at all. We shali 
see each other here, day after to-morrow, to arrange mat- 
ters, shall we not ? I must be off ; I have an appoint- 
ment with Huret.” 

And as she at last began to put on her chemise and as 
he was starting off, he shouted from the hall : 

“ Be careful, if you buy Italian, no stupidity! take it 
only on option.” 

Meanwhile, at the same hour, Madame Caroline, with 
head resting on her work-table, sat sobbing. The brutal 
information given by the coachman, this treason on the 
part of Saccard which she could no longer ignore, stirred 
within her all the suspicions, all the fears which she had 
tried to bury. She had forced herself to tranquillity and 
hope, in the affairs of the Universal becoming an accom- 


MONEY. 


231 


plice, through the blindness of her tenderness, in what 
they did not tell her, in what she did not try to find out. 
Accordingly she now reproached herself, in a fit of violent 
remorse, on account of the reassuring letter she had writ- 
ten to her brother at the time of the last stockholders’ 
meeting ; for she knew, now that her jealousy had again 
opened her eyes and ears, that the irregularities continued 
and were constantly being aggravated : thus the Saba- 
tani account had grown, the Society speculated more and 
more under cover of this prête-nom , to say nothing of the 
enormous and lying puffs, the foundations of sand and 
mud given to the colossal house, whose speedy rise, seem- 
ingly miraculous, struck her more with terror than with 
joy. What especially pained her was this terrible pace, 
this continual gallop, at which they drove the Universal, 
like a locomotive, stuffed with coal, launched upon dia- 
bolical rails, until everything should burst and leap into 
the air, from a final shock. She was not a simpleton, a 
booby who could be deceived ; though ignorant of the 
technicalities of banking, she perfectly understood the 
motives of this overdriving, of this feverishness, destined 
to intoxicate the crowd, to drag it into this mad epidemic 
of the dance of millions. Each morning must bring its 
rise ; it was necessary to inspire a continual belief in fur- 
ther successes, in monumental wickets, enchanted wickets 
which absorbed streams to return rivers and oceans of 
gold. Her poor brother, so credulous, seduced, carried 
away, should she then betray him, abandon him to this 
flood which threatened to drown them all some day ? 
She was desperate in her inactivity and her powerlessness. 

Meanwhile the twilight darkened the work-room, which 
the extinct fire did not illuminate with a single reflection ; 
and in this growing darkness Madame Caroline wept more 
bitterly still. It was cowardly to weep thus, for she was 
perfectly conscious that all these tears were not due to 
her anxiety about the affairs of the Universal. To be 
sure, Saccard was driving at a terrible gallop, lashing the 
beast with ferocity, an extraordinary moral unconscious- 
ness, free to kill it. He was the only guilty one ; she 
shuddered as she tried to read in him, in this obscure 


232 


MONEY. 


soul of a financier, of which he himself was ignorant, 
where darkness hid from darkness, the foul infinity of all 
degradations. What she did not yet clearly distinguish, 
she suspected and trembled at. But the slow discovery 
of so many sores, the fear of a possible catastrophe, would 
not thus have thrown her upon this table weeping and 
without strength, would on the contrary have straight- 
ened her up in a need of struggle and cure. She knew 
herself ; she was a warrior. No, if she sobbed so bitterly 
like a weak child, it was because she loved Saccard, and 
because Saccard, at this very moment, was with another 
woman. And this confession which she was obliged to 
make to herself filled her with shame, redoubled her tears 
till she almost choked. 

“ To think that I have no more pride, my God ! ” she 
stammered aloud; “ that I am so weak and miserable ! 
that I cannot when I would ! " 

Just then she was astonished to hear a voice in the dark 
home ^ Maxime ’ who had J ust entered, like one at 

What ! you are in the dark and crying! ” 

Confused at being thus surprised, she forced herself to 
master her sobs, while he added : 

beg y« ur Pardon, I thought my father had come 

dinLrTher e house r ” ' 7 t0 bHn g him to 

But the valet de chambre brought a lamp, and, after 
having placed it on the table, withdrew. The whole vast 

the'sharte lUum,nated with the soft % ht that fell from 

« “ 11 ls nothing,” Madame Caroline tried to explain 

nervousness!” 3 " S Md yet 1 am so free from 

And with dry eyes and erect body, she was alreadv 
smiling, with her fine bravery of a fighter. For a moment 
the young man looked at her, so proudly straightened up 
with her large clear eyes, her thick lips, her face of virifè 
kindness, which the thick crown of her hair had softened 
and penetrated with a great charm ; and he found her 
still young, white as she was, her teeth too very white an 


MONEY. 


233 

adorable woman, become beautiful. Then he thought of 
his father ; he gave a shrug of his shoulders full of con- 
temptuous pity. 

“ It is he, isn’t it, who puts you in such a state ? ” 

She tried to deny, but she strangled ; the tears rose 
again to her eyes. 

“ ^ h . m y P oor Madame, I told you that you enter- 
tained illusions regarding Papa, and that you would be ill- 
rewarded. It was inevitable that he should eat you, you 

Then she remembered the day when she had gone to 
borrow of him the two thousand francs, in order to pay 
the instalment of Victor’s ransom. Had he not promised 
to talk with her, when she would like to know? Was not 
here an opportunity to learn everything of the past, by 
questioning him ? And an irresistible desire pushed her 
on : now that she had begun to descend, it was necessary 
to go to the bottom. That alone was brave, worthy of 
her, useful to all. J 

But she shrank from this investigation ; she made a 
détour , seeming to break the thread of the conversation. 

“ 1 still owe you two thousand francs,” said she. “ You 
are not too angry with me for making you wait ? ” 

He made a gesture, as if to give her all the time she 
wanted. Then, suddenly : 

“ By the way, and my little brother, this monster?” 

“ He grieves me, I have not yet said anything to your 
father. I should so much like to clean the poor creature 
a little, so that one could love him ! ” 

A laugh from Maxime disturbed her, and as she ques- 
tioned him with her eyes, he said : 

“Why! I believe that here again you are taking a 
very useless care. Papa will scarcely understand all this 
trouble. He has seen so many of these family annoy- 
ances ! ” 

She was still looking at him, so correct in his egoistic 
enjoyment of life, so prettily disabused of human ties, 
even of those which pleasure creates. He had smiled’ 
tasting alone the hidden malice of his last phrase. And 


234 MONÈŸ. 

she was conscious that she was getting at the secret of 
these two men. 

“ You lost your mother at an early age ? ” 

“Yes, I scarcely knew her. I was still at Plassans, at 
school, when she died here in Paris. O uncle, Doctor 
Pascal, has kept my sister Clotilde with hi there ; I have 
seen her only once since.” 

“ But your father married again ?” 

He hesitated. His eyes, so clear and mpty, were dis- 
turbed by a slight reddish vapor. 

“ Oh ! yes, yes, „ married again. The daughter of a 
magistrate, one Béraud du Châtel. Renée, not a mother 
to me, but a good friend.” 

Then, with a familiar movement, sitting down beside 
her,|he went on : 

“You see, one must understand Papa. He is not, my 
God ! worse than the rest. Only, with him, children, 
wives, in short, everything around him, hold second 
place to money. Oh ! let us understand each other, he 
does not love money like a miser, to have an immense 
heap of it and hide it in his cellar. No ! if he wishes to 
make it spurt from everywhere, if he draws it from no 
matter what sources, it is to see it flow from him in tor- 
rents, it is for all the enjoyments that he gets from it, 
luxury, pleasure, power. What can you expect? It is 
in his blood. He would sell us, you, me, no matter whom, 
if we were a part of some bargain. And he would do it 
as an unconscious and superior man, for he is really the 
poet of the million, so mad and canaille does money make 
him, oh ! canaille in the very grand sense ! ” 

This was just what Madame Caroline had understood, 
and she listened to Maxime with an approving nod of the 
head. Ah ! money, this rotting, poisoning money, that 
dried up souls and drove away kindness, tenderness, love 
of others! It alone was the great culprit, the medium of 
all human cruelties and nastinesses. At that moment she 
cursed it, execrated it, in the indignant revolt of her 
woman’s nobility and uprightness. With one gesture, if 
she had had the power, she would have annihilated all the 


MONEY, 


235 

money in the world, as one would crush disease with one 
stamp of the heel, to save the health of the earth. 

“And your father married again,” she repeated, after a 
silence, with a slow and embarrassed voice, in a confused 
awakening of memories. 

Who, then, in her presence, had alluded to this story ? 
She could not have told : a woman undoubtedly, some 
friend, in the early days of her residence in the Rue Saint- 
Lazare, when the new tenant had come to occupy the 
second story. Was it not a matter of a marriage for 
money, some shameful bargain concluded ? And later 
had not crime tranquilly entered the household, tolerated 
and living there, a monstrous adultery, bordering on 
incest ? 

“ Renée,” replied Maxime, in a very low voice, as if in 
spite of himself, “ was only a few years older than I.” 

He had raised his head and was looking at Madame 
Caroline ; and in a sudden fit of frankness, of unreasoned 
confidence in this woman, who seemed to him so healthy 
and so wise, he told the story of the past, not in consecu- 
tive phrases, but in shreds, in incomplete and seemingly 
involuntary confessions, which she must sew together. 
Was he satisfying an old feeling of resentment against his 
father, the rivalry which had existed between them and 
which made them strangers even to-day, with no interests 
in common ? He did not accuse him, seemed incapable 
of anger ; but his little laugh turned into a sneer, he 
spoke of these abominations as if feeling a sly malicious 
joy in smirching him by stirring up all these villainies. 

And thus it was that Madame Caroline learned the 
frightful story in full : Saccard selling his name, marrying 
a betrayed girl for money ; Saccard, by his money, his 
mad and brilliant life, finishing the derangement of this 
sick child ; Saccard, in a need of money, having to obtain 
from her a signature, tolerating in his home the amours 
of his wife and his son, closing his eyes like a good patri- 
arch who is willing that people should amuse themselves. 
Money, the king money, the god money, above blood, 
above tears, adored more than vain human scruples, in 
the infinity of its power ! And in proportion as money 


236 


MONEY. 


grew, and Saccard revealed himself to her with this dia- 
bolical grandeur, Madame Caroline was seized with a real 
fright, frozen, bewildered, at the thought that she be- 
longed to this monster, after so many others. 

“There !” said Maxime, concluding. “ It pains me to 
see you thus, it is better that you should be warned. But 
don t let this make trouble between you and my father. 
I should be grieved, because you would be the one to 
weep over it, not he. Do you understand now why I re- 
fuse to lend him a sou ? ” 

As she did not answer, her throat compressed, struck 
to the heart, he rose, glanced into a mirror, with the tran- 
quil ease of a pretty man, certain of his correctness in 
life. Then he returned and stood before her. 

“ Such examples age you quickly, do they not ? For 
my part, I promptly arranged my matters ; I married a 
young # girl who was sick and is deadj I swear to-day that 
no one shall induce me to repeat these stupidities. No ! 
you see, Papa is incorrigible, because he has no moral 
sense.” 

He took her hand and held it a moment in his own 
feeling it cold. 

“ I am going, since he does not come. Do not allow 
yourself to suffer. I thought you so strong ! And thank 
me, for there is only one thing that is stupid,— to be a 
dupe.” 

Finally he started, but at the door he stopped to add 
with a laugh : 

I forgot ; tell him that Madame de Jeumont expects 
him to dinner. You know, Madame de Jeumont, the 
woman who slept with the emperor for a hundred thou- 
sand francs. And don’t be afraid, for, however mad 
Papa may be, I dare to hope that he is not capable of 
paying that price for a woman.” 

Madame Caroline, left alone, did not stir. She sat 
crushed on her chair, in the vast room sunk into an op- 
pressive silence, looking fixedly at the lamp, with her ex- 
panded eyes. It was like a sudden tearing aside of the 
veil: what she had been unwilling to clearly distinguish 
hitherto, what she only tremblingly suspected, she now saw 


MONEY. 


237 


in its frightful crudity, impossible to view with compla- 
cency. She saw Saccard stripped, this devastated soul of 
a financier, complicated and troubled in its decomposi- 
tion. He was in fact without bonds or barriers, satisfying 
his appetites with the unchained instinct of the man who 
knows no other limit than his powerlessness. He had 
shared his wife with his son, sold his son, sold his wife, 
sold all those who had fallen under his hand ; he had sold 
himself, and he would sell her, her also, he would sell her 
brother, would coin their hearts and brains into money. 
He was nothing but a maker of money, throwing men 
and things into the mint to take them out as money. In 
an interval of lucidity she saw the Universal sweating 
money in every direction, a lake, an ocean of money, in 
the midst of which, with a frightful crash, the house col- 
lapsed. Ah ! money, horrible money, that smirches and 
devours ! 

With an impetuous movement, Madame Caroline rose. 
No, no ! this was monstrous, all was ended, she could not 
stay longer with this man. His treason she could have 
forgiven him ; but a feeling of sickness came over her at 
the thought of all this former filth, she shook with terror 
before the menace of the possible crimes of to-morrow. 
There was nothing left for her but to start at once, if she 
did not wish to be splashed with mud herself, crushed 
under the rubbish. And she felt a desire to go far, very 
far away, to join her brother in the far-off Orient, more 
for the sake of disappearing than to warn him. To start, 
to start directly ! It was not six o’clock, she could not 
take the express for Marseilles at seven fifty-five, for it 
seemed to her beyond her strength to see Saccard again. 
At Marseilles, before embarking, she would make her pur- 
chases. Only a little linen in a trunk, one spare dress, 
and she would start. In a quarter of an hour she would 
be ready. Then the sight of her work on the table, the 
memoir begun, stopped her for a moment. What was 
the use of carrying all that with her, since the whole thing 
was bound to collapse, rotten at the base ? She began 
nevertheless to carefully arrange the documents and 
notes, through her habit as a good housekeeper who 


238 


MONEY. 


wished to leave nothing behind her in disorder. This 
task took her some minutes, calmed the first fever of her 
decision. And it was in full possession of herself that 
she gave a last glance around the room before leaving 
it, when the valet de chambre appeared again and handed 
her a package of newspapers and letters. 

With a mechanical glance Madame Caroline looked at 
the addresses, and in the pile recognized a letter from her 
brother, addressed to her. It came from Damascus, 
where Hamelin was then staying, making the arrange- 
ments for the proposed branch line from that city to Bey- 
rout. At first she began to glance over it, standing near 
the lamp, and promising herself to read it slowly later on 
the train. But each phrase held her attention, she could 
not skip a word, and she finally sat down again at the 
table, and gave herself entirely to the passionate reading 
of this long letter of twelve pages. 

Hamelin happened to be in one of his gayest moods. 
He thanked his sister for the last good news which she 
had sent him from Paris, and he sent her still better news 
in return, for everything was going to his liking. The 
first balance-sheet of the General Company of United 
Steamers made a superb showing ; the new steamships 
were realizing immense receipts, thanks to their perfect 
equipment and their superior speed. He jokingly said 
that they travelled in them for pleasure, and he pointed 
to the sea-ports invaded by the old world of the Occident, 
and declared that he could not make a journey through 
the lost paths without coming face to face with some 
Parisian of the Boulevard. It was really, as he had fore- 
seen, the Orient opened to France. Soon cities would 
spring up on the fertile slopes of the Libanos mountains. 
But especially he gave a very vivid picture of the lonely 
Carmel gorge, where the silver mine was in full exploita- 
tion. The savage site was being humanized ; springs 
had been discovered in the gigantic pile of fallen rocks 
which stopped up the valley at the north ; and fields were 
being made, wheat was replacing the mastic-trees, while 
a whole village had been built near the mines, at first sim- 
ple wooden cabins, huts to shelter the workmen, now little 


MONEY. 


239 


stone houses with gardens, a beginning of a city which 
would grow, provided the veins should not be exhausted. 
There were nearly five hundred inhabitants ; a road had 
just been finished, which connected the village with 
Saint-Jean-d’Acre. From morning till night the extrac- 
tion machines roared, wagons moved about to the sono- 
rous cracking of whips, women sang, children played and 
cried, in this desert, in this death-like silence which only 
the eagles used to break with the slow sound of their 
wings. And the myrtles and the broom still made the 
warm air balmy, that air so delightfully pure. Concern- 
ing the first iron way which was to be opened, from 
Broussa to Beyrout, by way of Angora and Aleppo, 
Hamelin was inexhaustible. All the formalities had been 
concluded at Constantinople ; certain happy modifica- 
tions which he had made in the track, for the difficult 
passage through the Taurus passes, enchanted him; and 
he talked of these passes, of the plains that stretched 
away at the foot of the mountains, with the delight of a 
man of science who had found new coal mines there, and 
who expected to see the country covered with factories. 
He had placed his guiding-points, the stations were 
located, some in utter solitude : one city here, another 
farther on, cities would spring up around each of these 
stations at the intersections of the natural highways. 
Already the harvest of men and of the grand things of 
the future was sown, everything was germinating, within 
a few years there would be a new world. And he 
finished with a very tender kiss for his adored sister, 
happy to associate her in this resurrection of a people, 
telling her that she would count for much in it, she who 
had so long aided him by her bravery and fine health. 

Madame Caroline had finished her reading, the letter 
lay open on the table, and she was thinking, her eyes again 
fixed upon the lamp. Then mechanically her look rose, 
made the circuit of the walls, stopping at each of the 
plans, at each of the water-colors. At Beyrout the dwell- 
ing for the director of the Company of United Steamers 
was now built, amid vast store-houses. At Mount Car- 
mel that deep wild gorge, stopped up with brambles and 


240 


MONEY. 


rocks, was being peopled, like the gigantic nest of a new- 
born population. In the Taurus range, these levelings, 
these profiles, changed the horizons, opening the way for 
free commerce. And before her, from these sheets with 
their geometrical lines and their washed tints, each fast- 
ened simply by four tacks, a complete vision arose of the 
far-off country where she had formerly travelled, so loved 
for its beautiful, eternally blue sky and its fertile earth. 
Again she saw the tiers of gardens at Beyrout, the val- 
leys of the Libanos mountains with their great forests of 
olive trees and mulberry trees, the plains of Antioch and 
Aleppo, immense orchards of delightful fruits. Again she 
saw herself with her brother on continual journeys through 
this marvellous country, whose incalculable wealth was 
lost, ignored, or spoiled, without roads, without industry 
or agriculture, without schools, in idleness and ignorance. 
But now to all this an extraordinary flow of young sap 
was giving life. This vision of the Orient of to-morrow 
placed already before her eyes prosperous cities, culti- 
vated fields, a happy humanity. And she saw them, and 
she heard the busy hum of the workshops, and she real- 
ized that this old and sleeping earth, reawakened at last, 
had just entered upon child-birth. 

Then to Madame Caroline came the sudden conviction 
that money was the muck-heap in which this humanity of 
to-morrow was growing. Saccard’s phrases came back to 
her, bits of theories regarding speculation. She recalled 
the idea that without speculation there would be no 
great enterprises, living and fruitful, any more than there 
would be children without debauchery. This excess of 
passion is necessary, all this life basely spent and lost, in 
the very continuation of life. If her brother, in the Orient, 
was in high spirits, crying victory, amid the workshops 
that were being organized and the buildings that were 
springing from the soil, it was because in Paris money 
was raining, rotting everything, in the rage for gambling. 
Money, the poisoner and destroyer, became the ferment 
of all social vegetation, served as the necessary compost 
for the great works, the execution of which would draw 
the nations nearer together and pacify the earth. She 


MONEY. 


241 

had cursed money, now she fell before it in frightened 
admiration : was not it alone the force that can level a 
mountain, fill up an arm of the sea, render the earth, in 
short, inhabitable by men, relieved of labor, henceforth 
simple conductors of machines? From this force which 
does everything that is evil, everything that is good is 
born. And she knew no longer, shaken to the depths of 
her being, already decided not to go away, since success 
seemed complete at the Orient and the battle was at 
Paris, but still incapable of calming herself, her heart yet 
bleeding. 

Madame Caroline rose, went to one of the windows 
that looked upon the garden of the Beauvilliers mansion, 
and pressed her forehead against % pane. It was now 
night; she distinguished only a faint gleam in the lonely 
little room where the Countess and her daughter lived, 
in order to make no dirt and to save the cost of fires! 
Behind the thin muslin curtains she vaguely distinguished 
the outline of the Countess, who was mending some cloth- 
ing herself, while Alice was painting water-colors, which 
she hurried off by the dozen and sold secretly. A mis- 
fortune had happened to them ; their horse had been 
taken sick, whereby for two weeks they had been confined 
to the house, obstinately refusing to be seen on foot, and 
reluctant to hire. But in this embarrassment so heroi- 
cally hidden one hope henceforth kept them up, more 
valiant, the continual rise of the Universal stock, the gain, 
already- very large, which they saw shining and falling in 
golden rain, the day when they should realize upon their 
shares at the highest figure. The Countess promised her- 
self a really new dress, and dreamed of giving four dinners 
a month in winter, without living on bread and water for 
a fortnight to pay for them. Alice no longer laughed, 
with her affected air of indifference, when her mother 
spoke to her of marriage, but listened, with a slight 
trembling of the hands, beginning to believe that this 
perhaps would be realized, and that she too would have a 
husband and children. And Madame Caroline, as she 
watched the burning of the little lamp that lighted them, 
felt rise toward her a great calmness, an emotion, struck 


242 


MONEY, 


by her observation that again money, the simple hope of 
money, sufficed for the happiness of these poor creatures. 
If Saccard enriched them, would they not bless him, would 
he not remain, to both of them, charitable and good ? 
Goodness then was everywhere, even in the worst, who 
are always good to some one, and who always have, 
amidst the curse§ of a crowd, humble isolated voices 
thanking and adoring them. At this reflection, her 
thought, while her eyes were blinded by the darkness of 
the garden, had turned toward the Work of Labor. The 
day before, on behalf of Saccard, she had distributed toys 
and sweetmeats there, in celebration of an anniversary ; 
and she smiled involuntarily at the children’s noisy joy. 
For the last month Vfctor had given greater satisfaction ; 
she had read notes of commendation at the apartments of 
the Princess d’Orviedo, with whom, twice a week, she 
talked at length about the institution. But at this image 
of Victor, which suddenly appeared to her, she was aston- 
ished at having forgotten him in her crisis of despair, when 
she intended to go. Could she thus have abandoned him, 
compromising the good action which she carried so far 
with so much trouble? A more and more penetrating 
mildness rose from the obscurity of the tall trees, a flood 
of ineffable renunciation, of divine tolerance, which en- 
larged her heart ; while the poor little lamp of the Beau- 
villiers ladies continued to shine, in their room, like a star. 

When Madame Caroline came back to her table, she 
was shivering a little. What ! she was cold ! And that 
amused her, she who boasted of passing the winter with- 
out a fire. She felt as though she had come from an icy 
bath, rejuvenated and strong, with pulse very calm. She 
felt thus on mornings when she rose particularly well. 
Then it occurred to her to put a log in the fire-place ; and 
seeing that the fire was out, she amused herself in lighting 
it again, without ringing for a servant. It was a job • she 
had no kindling-wood, but she succeeded in setting fire to 
the logs, simply with old newspapers, which she burned 
one after another. On her knees before the hearth she 
laughed all alone. For a moment she remained there 
happy and surprised. Again she had passed through one 


MONEY. 


243 


of her great crises, again she hoped, still knowing nothing 
of the eternal unknown that lay at the end of life, at the 
end of humanity. To live, that must suffice, in order that 
life might continually bring her the cure for the wounds 
which life inflicted. Once more she remembered the 
catastrophes of her existence, her frightful marriage, her 
poverty at Paris, her abandonment by the only man whom 
she had loved ; and after every fall she recovered that 
tenacious energy, that immortal joy which placed her on 
her feet again, amid the ruins. Had not everything just 
fallen ? She stood without esteem for her lover, con- 
fronted with his frightful past, as holy women stand be- 
fore the unclean wounds which they go, morning and 
evening, to dress, not hoping ever to heal them. She 
was going to continue to belong to him, though knowing 
that he was with others, and not even trying to dispute 
with them for him. She was going to live in a fire, in the 
panting forge of speculation, under the incessant threat 
of a final catastrophe, in which her brother might lose his 
honor and his blood. Nevertheless, there she stood, al- 
most reckless, as on the morning of a fine day, tasting the 
joy of battle in confronting danger. Why? for nothing 
reasonably, for the pleasure of being! Her brother told 
her truly, she was invincible hope. 

Saccard, when he returned, saw Madame Caroline 
buried in her work, finishing, with her strong hand-writ- 
ing, a page of the memoir on the Oriental railways. She 
raised her head and smiled upon him peacefully, while his 
lips passed lightly over her beautiful and radiant white 
hair. 

“ You have been hurrying, my friend ? ” 

“ Oh ! endless business ! I saw the minister of public 
works, I went to meet Huret, I had to return to the minis- 
try, where I found only a secretary. At last I have the 
desired promise.” 

In fact, since leaving the Baroness Sandorff, he had not 
stopped for a moment, wholly devoted to business, in the 
impetuosity of his customary zeal. She handed him 
Hamelin’s letter, which delighted him ; and she watched 
him exulting over the approaching triumph, saying to 


244 


MONEY. 


herself that henceforth she would look after him more 
closely, to prevent certain follies. But she did not suc- 
ceed in being severe. 

“ Your son has been here to invite you, in the name of 
Madame de Jeumont.” 

He gave an exclamation. 

“ Why, she wrote to me ! I had forgotten to tell you 
that I was going there this evening. How that bores me, 
tired as I am ! ” 

And he started, after having again kissed her white 
hair. She went at her work again, with her friendly smile, 
full of indulgence. Was she not simply a friend who 
gave herself? Jealousy caused her a feeling of shame, as 
if it had further soiled their liaison. She wished to ’be 
superior to the pain of sharing, free from the carnal 
egoism of love. To be his, to know that he was with 
others, that was of no importance. Nevertheless, she 
loved him with all her courageous and charitable heart 
He was triumphant love, this Saccard, this financial ban- 
dit of the sidewalk, loved so absolutely by this adorable 
woman because she saw him, active and brave, creating 
a world, making life. 




i 


i 


VIII. 


IT was on the first of April that the Universal Exposi- 
tion of 1867 opened, amid festivities, with triumphal 
splendor. The grand season of the empire was beginning, 
that season of supreme show, which was to make Paris 
the tavern of the world, a tavern decorated with flags, 
filled with music and song, where people ate, where they 
fornicated in all the chambers. Never had a reign, at its 
zenith, convoked the nations to such a colossal feast. 
Toward the flaming Tuileries, in an apotheosis of enchant- 
ment, the long procession of emperors, kings, and princes 
started on the march, from the four corners of the earth. 

And it was at the same period, a fortnight later, that 
Saccard inaugurated the monumental building in which 
it had been his intention to royally lodge the Universal. 
Six months had just sufficed ; they had worked day and 
night, without losing an hour, accomplishing that miracle 
which is possible only in Paris ; and the façade rose, dec- 
orated with ornaments characteristic partly of the temple 
and partly of the café-concert, a façade whose outspread 
luxuries caused people to stop upon the sidewalk. The 
interior was sumptuous, the millions of the vaults stream- 
ing along the walls. A staircase of honor led to the 
directors’ room, red and gold, with the splendor of an 
opera house. Everywhere carpets, hangings, offices 
equipped with a dazzling wealth of furniture. In the 
basement, where the titles were stored, there were im- 
mense sealed strong-boxes, opening with deep oven-like 
mouths, behind the untinned glass partitions, which per- 
mitted the public to see them, arranged like the casks in 
fairy tales, where sleep the incalculable treasures of the 
fairies. And the peoples with their kings, on the march 


24 6 


MONEY. 


to the Exposition, could come and pass through here : all 
was ready, the new building awaited them, to blind them, 
to catch them one by one in this irresistible golden trap, 
flaming in the sunlight. 

Saccard wasenthroned in the most sumptuously equipped 
office, with Louis XIV. furniture, of gilded wood, upholst- 
ered in Genoa velvet. The number of employees had just 
been increased, so that it exceeded four hundred ; and now 
Saccard commanded this army, with the pomp of a tyrant 
both adored and obeyed, for in the matter of presents he 
was very open-handed. But in reality, in spite of his sim- 
ple title of manager, he reigned, above the president of 
the board, above the board itself, which simply ratified 
his orders. Consequently Madame Caroline lived from 
that time on the continual alert, very busy in finding out 
each of his decisions, to try and set herself athwart them 
if necessary. She disapproved this new and much too 
magnificent establishment, unable however to blame it in 
principle, having recognized the necessity of larger quar- 
ters, in the fine days of tender confidence, when she joked 
her brother who was growing anxious. Her avowed fear 
her argument, for combating all this luxury, was that the 
house thereby lost its character of modest probity, of high 
religious gravity. What would the customers, accustomed 
to monkish discretion, to the half-light that found its way 
into the ground-floor of the Rue Saint-Lazare, think when 
they should enter this palace in the Rue de Londres 
with its lofty rooms enlivened with sound and inundated 
with light ? Saccard answered that they would be over- 
whelmed with admiration and respect, that those who 
brought five francs would take ten from their pocket 
seized with pride, intoxicated with confidence. And in' 
his tinsel brutality, he was right. The success of the 
building was prodigious, surpassing in effective agitation 
Jantrous most extraordinary puffs. The pioils little 
capitalists of the quiet neighborhoods, the poor country 
priests arriving in the morning from the railway-station, 
stood gaping beatifically before the door, and came out 
red with pleasure at the thought of having their funds in 
such a place. 


MONEY. 


247 


In truth, what especially vexed Madame Caroline was 
that she could no longer be always in the establishment 
itself, exercising her supervision, naturally. Scarcely was 
she allowed to go to the Rue de Londres, occasionally, 
on some pretext. Now she lived alone in the workroom ; 
she scarcely saw Saccard, except in the evening. He had 
kept his apartments there, but the whole ground-floor re- 
mained closed, as well as the offices in the second story ; 
and the Princess d'Orviedo, happy really at no longer 
having to feel the secret remorse of this bank, of this 
money-shop, established in her premises, did not even try 
to rent it, in her wilful heedlessness of all profit, however 
legitimate. The empty house, echoing to every passing 
vehicle, seemed like a tomb. Madame Caroline now heard 
through the ceilings only that shuddering silence of closed 
wickets, whence continually for the last two years had 
come the light jingling of gold. The days seemed heavier 
and longer to her. Yet she worked a great deal, always 
kept busy by her brother, who sent her, from the Orient, 
tasks that required much writing. But sometimes in her 
work she stopped, listened from force of habit, seized with 
instinctive anxiety, feeling an imperative desire to know 
what was going on below ; and nothing, not a breath, the 
annihilation of the stripped rooms, empty, black, securely 
locked. Then a slight feeling of cold ran through her ; 
for a few minutes she forgot herself, in her anxiety. 
What were they doing at the Rue de Londres? Was it 
not at this precise second that the crack was appearing by 
which the edifice would perish ? 

The report spread, though still vague and light, that 
Saccard was contemplating a new increase of capital. 
From one hundred millions he wished to raise it to one 
hundred and fifty. It was an hour of special excitement, 
the fatal hour when all the prosperities of the reign, the 
immense works which had transformed the city, the mad 
circulation of money, the furious expenditures of luxury 
and appetite, were bound to end in a hot fever of specu- 
lation. Each one wished his share, risked his fortune 
over the green cloth, in order to increase it ten-fold, and 
to enjoy, like so many others, enriched in a night. The 


248 


MONEY. 


flags of the Exposition which flapped in the wind, the il- 
lumination and music of thejChamp-de-Mars, the crowds 
of the entire world flooding the streets, finished the in- 
toxication of Paris, in a dream of inexhaustible wealth 
and sovereign domination. On clear evenings, from the 
enormous city in festivity, sitting at tables in exotic res- 
taurants, changed into a colossal fair where pleasure was 
freely sold beneath the stars, rose the supreme stroke 
of madness, the joyous and voracious folly of grand capi- 
tals threatened with destruction. And Saccard, with his 
scent of a cut-purse, had so clearly felt the advent of this 
paroxysm in the minds of all, this desire to throw their 
money to the winds, to empty their pockets and their 
bodies, that he had just doubled the appropriation for 
advertising, urging Jantrou to raise the most deafening 
din. Every day since the opening of the Exposition the 
press had been filled with peals of bells in favor of the 
Universal. Each morning brought its clash of cymbals, 
to make the world turn round and look : some extraor- 
dinary local item, the story of a lady who had forgotten 
a hundred shares in a cab; an extract from an account of 
a journey in Asia Minor, where it was explained that 
Napoleon had predicted the establishment in the Rue de 
Londres ; a leading article in which the rôle of this house 
was considered politically in relation to the approaching 
solution of the Eastern question ; to say nothing of the 
continual notes in the special journals, all enlisted, march- 
ing in a compact mass. Jantrou had made annual con- 
tracts with the small financial sheets, which assured him 
a column in every number; and he employed this column 
with an astonishing fertility and variety of imagination 
going so far as to attack the institution, for the sake of 
-the triumph of conquering afterwards. The famous pam- 
phlet of which he dreamed had just been launched through 
the entire world, to the extent of a million copies. His 
new agency was also established, that agency which un- 
der the pretext of sending a financial bulletin to the pro- 
vincial journals, made itself absolute mistress of the mar- 
ket in all the important cities. And finally F Espérance 
shrewdly conducted, was daily taking on greater political 


MONEY. 


249 

importance. Much attention had been attracted by a 
series of articles that followed the decree of January 19, 
which substituted for the address the right of interpella- 
tion, a new concession of the Emperor, on the march 
toward liberty. Saccard, who inspired them, did not ven- 
ture in them to openly attack his brother, who had re- 
mained prime minister nevertheless, resigned, in his pas- 
sion for power, to defend to-day what he condemned yes- 
* terday ; but the articles showed Saccard to be on the 
look-out, watching the false situation of Rougon, taken in 
the Chamber between the third party, hungry for its in- 
heritance, and the clericals, in league with the authori- 
tarian Bonapartists, against the liberal empire ; and the 
insinuations were already beginning, the journal was again 
becoming an organ of militant Catholicism, ever ready to 
bitterly comment upon each of the minister’s acts. L Es- 
pérance in the ranks of the opposition, that meant popu- 
larity, a Fronde wind finishing the launching of the Uni- 
versal’s name to the four corners of France and of the 
world. 

Then, under this formidable impulse of advertising, in 
these exasperated surroundings, ripe for all follies, the 
probable increase of capital, this rumor of a new issue of 
fifty millions, filled even the coolest with fever. From 
humble dwellings to aristocratic mansions, from the lodge 
of the janitress to the parlor of the duchess, heads took 
fire, infatuation turned into blind faith, heroic and ready 
for battle. They enumerated the great things already 
done by the Universal, the first startling successes, the 
unexpected dividends, such as no other society had dis- 
tributed in its beginnings. They recalled the happy idea 
of the Company of United Steamers, so prompt in mag- 
nificent results, this Company whose stock already com- 
manded a premium of a hundred francs ; and the Carmel 
silver mine, with its miraculous product, to which a sacred 
orator had alluded from the pulpit of Notre-Dame, speak- 
ing of it as a gift from God to trusting Christianity ; and 
another society created for the exploitation of immense 
coal veins ; and another which was to fell the vast forests 
of the Libanos mountains, cutting so much every year ; 


250 


Money. 


and the establishment of the Turkish National Bank, at 
Constantinople, of such great solidity. Not one check, 
an increasing good fortune which changed into gold 
everything that the house touched, already a large ensem- 
ble of prosperous creations providing an immovable base 
for future operations, justifying the rapid increase of the 
capital. Then there was the future which opened before 
the overheated imaginations, the future so big with enter 
prises larger still that it necessitated the call for fifty 
millions, the mere announcement of which was sufficient 
to thus upset brains. Here the field was limitless for the 
rumors of the Bourse and the parlors ; but the approach- 
ing grand affair of the Oriental Railway Company stood 
out amid the other projects, occupied all conversations 
denied by some, exalted by others. The women espe- 
cially became excited, and carried on enthusiastic propa- 
gandism in favor of the idea. In the corners of boudoirs 
at gala dinners, behind blooming flower-stands at thé 
late hour of tea, even in the depths of alcoves, there were 
charming creatures, persuasively caressing, who thus cate- 
chised men : What ! you have no Universal? But that 
is the only thing worth having! Buy Universal quickly 
if you wish to be loved ! ” It was the new Crusade, these 
ladies said, the conquest of Asia, which the crusaders of 
Peter the Hermit and Saint Louis had been unable to 
effect, and which they, these ladies, undertook with their 
little purses of gold. All pretended to be well informed, 
talked in technical terms of the mother line which was to 
be opened first, from Broussa to Beyrout by way of An- 
gora and Aleppo. Later would come the branch line 
from Smyrna to Angora ; later, that from Trebizond to 
Angora, by way of Erzrum and Sivas ; later still, that 
from Damascus to Beyrout. And here they smiled and 
winked, and whispered that perhaps there would b’e an- 
other, oh . in a long time, from Beyrout to Jerusalem by 
' vay of . th ff e old Cltles of the coast, Saida, Saint-jéam 
d Acre, Jaffa then, my God ! who knows ? from Jerusa- 
i®” 1 , °. , . t ' S f d , and AIe xandria. To say nothing - ^ of the 

fact that Bagdad was not far from Damascus, and that if 
an iron way should be pushed to that point, it woéld 


money. 


251 


mean the acquisition, sooner or later, by the Occident, of 
Peisia, India, and China. It seemed as if, upon a word 
from their pretty lips, the re-discovered treasures of the 
caliphs shone resplendently, in a marvellous tale of the 
Thousand and One Nights. The jewels and thejprecious 
stones of the dream rained into the vaults of the Rue de 
Londres, while the incense of Carmel rose, a delicate and 
vague background of Biblical legends, imparting divinity 
to the fierce appetites for gain. Was it not Eden re-con- 
quered, the Holy Land delivered, religion triumphant, in 
the very cradle of humanity ? And they stopped, refus- 
ing to say more, their looks beaming with that which it 
was necessary to hide. These things were not to be 
whispered even in the ear. Many of these ladies were 
ignorant of them, but nevertheless pretended to know. 
This was the mystery, that which perhaps would never 
happen and which perhaps would burst some day like a 
thunderbolt: Jerusalem re-purchased from the sultan, 
given to the pope, with Syria for his kingdom ; the Papacy 
having a budget furnished by a Catholic bank, the Treas- 
ury of the Holy Sepulchre, which would place it beyond 
the reach of political agitations; Catholicism thus reju- 
venated, free from compromises, finding a new authority, 
dominating the world from the top of the mountain where 
Christ expired. 

Now, mornings, Saccard, in his luxurious Louis XIV. 
ofifice, was obliged to forbid his door when he wanted to 
work, for it was an assault, a court procession coming to 
a king’s levee, courtiers, business people, solicitors, un- 
bounded admiration and mendicity around omnipotence. 
Especially one morning early in July he was pitiless, hav- 
ing given formal orders to let no one in. While the 
ante-room was overflowing with people, with a crowd 
which persisted, in spite of the usher, waiting, hoping 
nevertheless, he had shut himself up with two heads of 
departments to finish studying the new issue. After ex- 
amining several projects, he had just decided in favor of a 
combination which, thanks to this new issue of a hundred 
thousand shares, would permit the complete release of 
the two hundred thousand old shares, upon which only 


252 


MONEY. 


one hundred and twenty-five francs had been paid ; and, in 
order to arrive at this result, the shares, reserved for ex- 
isting stockholders, in the ratio of one new share for two 
old ones, would be issued at eight hundred and fifty 
francs, immediately payable, five hundred francs for the 
capital and a premium of three hundred and fifty francs 
for the proposed release. But complications presented 
themselves ; there was still a hole to fill up, which made 
Saccard very nervous. The sound of voices in the ante- 
room irritated him. This crawling Paris, this homage 
which he usually received with the good nature of a fa- 
miliar despot, on this occasion filled him with contempt. 
And Dejoie, who served him as usher in the morning, 
having permitted himself to approach by a roundabout 
way through a little door opening from the passage, he 
received him furiously. 

“What! I told you nobody, nobody, do you under- 
stand ? Here ! take my cane, plant it at my door, and 
let them kiss it.” 

Dejoie, immovable, permitted himself to insist. 

“ Pardon me, Monsieur, it is the Countess de Beauvil- 
liers. She begged so hard, and, as I know Monsieur 
wishes to be agreeable to her ”... 

“ What! ” cried Saccard, in a fit of anger; “let her go 
to the devil with the rest.” 

Then he immediately reconsidered, with a gesture of 
repressed wrath. 

“ Show her in, since it seems to be settled that I can- 
not be left in peace. And through this little* door, that 
the troop may not enter with her.” 

The welcome which Saccard extended to the Countess 
de Beauvilhers was characterized by the abruptness of a 
man just recovering from excitement. Even the sight of 
Alice, who accompanied her mother, with her silent and 
profound air, did not calm him. He had sent away the 
two heads of departments, and was thinking only how 
soon he could call them back to continue his work. 

pressed” Madame> speak <l uickl y> for I am horribly 


MONEY. 


253 

The Countess stopped in surprise, always slow, with 
her sadness of a fallen queen. 

“But, Monsieur, if I disturb you” . . . 

He had to point them to seats; and the young girl, the 
braver of the two, sat down first, with a resolute move- 
ment, while the mother continued. 

“ Monsieur, I come for advice. I am in a state of most 
painful uncertainty, I am afraid I shall never be able to 
decide alone.” 

And she reminded him that at the foundation of the 
bank she had taken a hundred shares, which, being 
doubled at the time of the first increase of capital, and 
doubled again at the time of the second, made to-day a 
total of four hundred shares, upon which she had paid, 
including premiums, the sum of eighty-seven thousand 
francs. Beside her twenty thousand francs which she had 
saved, she had been obliged therefore, in order to pay 
this sum, to borrow seventy thousand francs on her farm 
the Aublets. 

“ Now,” she continued, “ I find to-day a purchaser for 
the Aublets. And there is to be a new issue, is there 
not ? So that I perhaps could place our entire fortune 
in your house.” 

Saccard was appeased, flattered at seeing the two poor 
women, the last of a grand and ancient race, so trusting, 
so anxious in his presence. Rapidly, with figures, he in- 
formed them. 

“ A new issue, to be sure, I am just attending to it. 
The shares will be eight hundred and fifty francs, with 
the premium. You say that you have four hundred 
shares. Two hundred then will be awarded to you, which 
will compel you to make a payment of one hundred and 
seventy thousand francs. But all your shares will be re- 
leased, you will have six hundred belonging entirely to 
you, owing nothing on them to anyone.” 

They did not understand ; he had to explain to them 
this release of the shares by the aid of the premium ; and 
they turned a little pale in presence of these big figures, 
oppressed with the idea of the audacious stroke" which it 
was necessary to risk, 


254 


MONEY. 


“ As for the money,” murmured the mother at last, “ that 
will be all right. I am offered two hundred and forty 
thousand francs for the Aublets, which formerly were 
worth four hundred thousand ; so that, after repaying the 
sum already borrowed, there would be just enough left 
to pay for the shares. But, my God ! what a terrible 
thing, this fortune displaced, our whole existence thus 
•ventured ! ” 

And her hands trembled, there was a silence, during 
which she reflected upon this machinery which had drawn 
in, first her savings, then the borrowed seventy thousand 
francs, and which now threatened to take the entire farm. 
Her old respect for landed property, in ploughed fields, 
in meadows, in forests, her repugnance for traffic in 
money, that base task of the Jews, unworthy of her race, 
came back and filled her with anguish, at this decisive 
moment when everything was going to be consumed. 
Her daughter looked at her in silence, with her pure and 
ardent eyes. 

Saccard gave an encouraging smile. 

“ Why, it is very certain that you must have confidence 
in us. But there are the figures. Examine them, and 
hesitation seems at once impossible. Suppose you decide 
to do it ; then you have six hundred shares, which, re- 
leased, have cost you the sum of two hundred and fifty- 
seven thousand francs. Now, they are quoted to-day at 
an average rate of thirteen hundred francs, which makes 
you a total of seven hundred and eighty thousand francs. 
Already you have more than tripled your money. And 
that will continue ; you will see how the stock will go up 
after the issue ! I promise you the million before the end 
of the year.” 

“ Oh ! Mamma ! ” said Alice, allowing the words to es- 
cape her in a sigh, as if in spite of herself. 

A million ! The mansion in the Rue Saint-Lazare 
freed from its mortgages, cleaned of its filth of poverty ! 
The style of the house restored to a proper footing, drawn 
from this night-mare of people who have a carriage and 
lack bread ! The daughter married with a respectable 
dowry, able at last to have a husband and children, that 


MONEY. 


255 


J o7the h Ïr h eL Per Th ted ‘° ^ Io T Stand P°° rest mature 
?! ... str f. ets ‘ The son, whom the climate of Rome was 

killing, relieved, put in a position to maintain his rank 

so lttle7Th tOSe Ih e thegrat ? d ca use, which utilized him 
so little ! The mother re-established in her high position 

a' ffia COachm ? n ’ "? lon ? er Pinching herself to add 
a dish to her Tuesday dinners, and no longer condemning 

flamed ■% ^ f T * ^ ° f the Week ! This million 

ttâmed , it was salvation, it was the dream. 

ihe Countess, conquered, turned to her daughter to 
associate her with her will. 

“ Well, what do you think about it ? ” 

But the daughter would say nothing more ; she slowly 
drooped her eyelids, extinguishing the glow in her eyes. 

« r u j S t rUe ’ cont ‘ nued the mother, smiling in her turn, 

I had forgotten that you wished to leave me absolute 
mistress. But I know how brave you are and all that 
you hope. 

And, addressing Saccard : 

“Ahî Monsieur, people speak so highly of you’ 
Wherever we go, they tell us the most beautiful and 
touching things. It is not only the Princess d’Orviedo 
but all my friends who are enthusiastic over your work 
Many are jealous of me because I was one of your first 
stockholders, and, if I were to take their advice, I would 
sell even my mattresses to buy your stock.” 

She was jesting mildly. 

“I even think them a little wild, yes! really, a little 
wild. Undoubtedly it is because I am no longer young 
enough. But my daughter is one of your admirers, she 
believes in your mission, she carries on the propaganda in 
all the parlors to which I take her.” 

Saccard, charmed, looked at Alice, and she was at that 
moment so animated, so vibrating with faith, that she 
really seemed to him very pretty, in spite of her yellow 
complexion and her too slender neck, already faded 
Accordingly he felt grand and good, at the idea of having 
brought happiness to this sad creature, whom the hope 
of a husband sufficed to beautify. 

“ Oh ! ” said she, in a very low voice, as if in the dis- 


256 


MONEY. 


tance, “ it is so beautiful, this conquest Yes, a new era, 
the radiant cross.” 

This was the mystery, of which no one spoke ; and her 
voice sank lower yet, and was lost in a breath of rapture. 
He moreover reduced her to silence with a friendly ges- 
ture, for he would not tolerate speech in presence of the 
grand thing, the supreme and hidden end. His gesture 
indicated that it was necessary to always aim at this, but 
nver to open one’s lips about it. In the sanctuary the 
censers swung, in the hands of the initiated. 

After a moving silence, the Countess finally rose. 

“ Well, Monsieur, I am convinced ; I am going to write 
to my notary that I accept the offer that has been made 
for the Aublets. May God forgive me if I do wrong ! ” 

Saccard, standing, declared with a gravity mingled with 
emotion : 

“ It is God himself who inspires you, Madame, be cer- 
tain of it.” 

And as he accompanied them to the passage, avoiding 
the ante-room still thronged with people, he met Dejoie, 
who was prowling about, with an embarrassed air. 

“What’s the matter ? Not some one else, I hope ? ” 

“No, no, Monsieur. If I dared to ask Monsieur’s 
advice. It is for myself.” 

And he manoeuvred in such a way that Saccard found 
himself in his office again, while he stood on the thresh- 
old, in a very deferential attitude. 

“For you ! Ah, it is true, you too are a stockholder. 
Well, my man, take the new shares which will be reserved 
for you, take them if you must sell your shirts. That is 
the advice which I give to all our friends.” 

“ Oh ! Monsieur, that is too large a slice, my daughter 
and I are not so ambitious. At the beginning I took 
eight shares with the four thousand francs which my poor 
wife save'd and left to us ; and I have still only these eight, 
because, you see, at the time of the other issues, when 
the capital was doubled twice, we did not have the money 
to accept the shares which we were entitled to purchase. 
No, no, that is not the question, one need not be so 
greedy as that. I simply wanted to ask Monsieur, with- 


MONEY. 


257 


out offending him, if Monsieur is of the 
should sell.” 


opinion that I 


“ What ! that you should sell ? ” 

Then Dejoie, with all sorts of anxious and respectful 
circtimlocutmns explained his situation. At the rate of 
thirteen hundred francs his eight shares represented ten 
thousand four hundred francs. Therefore he could easily 
give Nathalie the dowry of six thousand francs which the 
box-maker required. But, in view of the continual rise 
of the stock, an appetite for money had come to him, the 
idea vague at first, and then tyrannical, of making a share 
or himself, of having as his own a little income of six 
hundred francs which would permit him to retire. But a 
capital of twelve thousand francs, added to his daughter’s 
six thousand, made the enormous total of eighteen thou- 
sand francs ; and he despaired of ever reaching this figure 
for he had calculated that to do so he would have to wait 
until the stock should rise to two thousand three hundred 
francs. 

“You understand, Monsieur, that, if it is not going to 
rise higher, I prefer to sell, because I place Nathalie’s hap- 
piness above everything, you see. Whereas, if it should 
still go up, I should be heart-sick at the thought that I 
had sold.” 

Saccard burst out : 


“ Ah • my man, you are stupid ! You believe that we 
are going to stop at thirteen hundred ? Do I sell ? You 
shall have your eighteen thousand francs, I answer for it. 
And now be off, and pitch out all those people yonder ; 
tell them that I have gone.” 

When he found himself alone again, Saccard could 
recall the two heads of departments and finish his work in 
peace. 

It was decided that a special stockholders’ meeting 
should be held in August, to vote the new increase of 
stock. Hamelin, who was to preside, landed at Marseilles 
in the latter psirt of July. His sister, in each of her letters 
for the past two months, had advised him to come back, 
more and more urgently. Amid the brutal success which 
was becoming more pronounced every day, she had a feel- 


258 


MONEY. 


ing of secret danger, an unreasoned fear, of which she 
did not even dare to speak ; and she preferred that her 
brother should be there to see things for himself, for she 
had come to doubt herself, fearing that she might have 
no strength against Saccard, that she might allow herself 
to be blinded, to the point of betraying this brother whom 
she loved so much. Should she not have confessed to 
the latter her liaison , which he certainly did not suspect, 
in his innocence of a man of faith and of science, travers- 
ing life like an awakened sleeper ? This idea was extremely 
painful to her ; and she indulged herself in cowardly 
capitulations : she discussed with duty, which very clearly 
ordered her, now that she knew the man and his past, to 
tell everything, that they might be on their guard. In 
her hours of strength she promised herself that she would 
have a decisive explanation, that she would not abandon 
without control the handling of such large sums of money 
to criminal hands, in which so many millions had already 
cracked and melted away, crushing the world. Was it 
not the only course to take, virile and honest, worthy of 
her? Then her lucidity became troubled, she grew weak, 
temporized, could find no grievances except the irregulari- 
ties common to all houses of credit, as he affirmed. Per- 
haps he was right in saying to her with a laugh that the 
monster of which she was afraid was success, that success 
in Paris which resounds and strikes like a thunderbolt, 
and which left her trembling, as if under the unexpected 
and the anguish of a catastrophe. She knew no longer ; 
there were even hours when she admired him more, full 
of that infinite tenderness which she kept for him, while 
having ceased to esteem him. Never would she have 
thought her heart so complicated, she felt herself a woman, 
she feared lest she might not be able to act. And that is 
why she was very happy at her brother’s return. 

It was on the very afternoon of Hamelin’s arrival that 
Saccard, in the work-room, where they were certain of not 
being disturbed, wished to submit to him the resolutions 
which the board of directors would have to approve, 
before they could be voted upon by the stockholders! 
But the brother and the sister, by a tacit agreement, were 


MONEY. 


259 


If™" 6 of the hour of meeting, and, finding themselves 
alone for a moment were able to talk. Hamelin came 

fid hr th7 Say \ de ' g J? ted ft having managed so success- 
u y the complex affair of the railwavs in that Eastern 
country so asleep m idleness, so obstructed with political, 
administrative, and financial obstacles. In short success 
was complete, the first work was about to begin, work- 
shops would be opened in every direction, as soon as the 
society should complete its constitution at Paris. And 
ivf j 3S S ° 5, nth H siastic . s ° confident of the future, that to 
Ma ' u"??, Carohne thls was a new cause for silence, so 
much did it cost her to spoil this beautiful joy. Never- 
theless she expressed certain doubts, put him on his 
guard against the infatuation which was carrying away 
the pubhc. He stopped her, he looked her in the face. 

. .t was the matter, then? Did she know anything sus- 
picious? Why did she not speak? And she did not 
speak, she found nothing that she could clearly articulate. 

Saccard, who had not yet seen Hamelin, leaped upon 
his neck and embraced him, with his southern exuberance 
then, when Hamelin had confirmed his last letters by giv- 
ing him details as to the absolute success of his long 
journey, he became enthusiastic. 

Ah ! my dear fellow, this time we are going to be the 
masters of Paris, the kings of the market. I too have 
been hard at work ; I have an extraordinary idea. You 
shall see.” 


Straightway he explained to him his combination : to 
raise the capital from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 
millions by issuing a hundred thousand new shares, and 
to release at the same stroke all the shares, both the old 
and the new. He would launch the new stock at eight 
hundred and fifty francs, and, with the premium of three 
hundred and fifty francs, would make a reserve, which, 
added to the sums already put aside by each balance- 
sheet, would reach the figure of twenty-five millions ; and 
nothing then would be needed but to find a like sum in 
order to obtain the fifty millions necessary to the release 
of the two hundred thousand old shares. Now here came 
in his extraordinary idea, that of drawing up an approx- 


MONEY. 


ZÔO 

imative balance-sheet of the profits of the current year, 
profits which in his opinion would rise to at least thirty-six 
millions. From these he would tranquilly draw the twenty- 
five millions which he needed. And thus, starting from 
December ist, 1867, the Universal would have a definitive 
capital of a hundred and fifty millions, divided into three 
hundred thousand shares entirely released. They would 
unify the stock and make it payable to bearer, so as to 
facilitate its free circulation on the market. This was the 
definitive triumph, the idea of genius. 

‘*Yes, of genius!” he cried, “the word is not too 
strong.” 

Somewhat dazed, Hamelin turned over the pages of the 
project, examining the figures. 

“ I hardly like this premature balance-sheet,” he said at 
last. “ These are real dividends that yoii are going to give 
your stockholders, since you release their shares ; and one 
must be certain that all the sums are really earned; 
otherwise they would rightly accuse us of having distrib- 
uted fictitious dividends.” 

Saccard grew excited : 

“ What ! But I am below the estimates ! See if I have 
not been reasonable ; will not the steamers, Carmel, the 
Turkish Bank, yield larger profits than those which I have 
put down? You bring me bulletins of victory, every- 
thing is marching, everything is prosperous, and you cavil 
about the certainty of our success ! ” 

Hamelin, smiling, calmed him with a gesture. Yes, 
yes ! he had faith. Only he preferred that things should 
take their regular course. 

“ In fact,” said Madame Caroline, gently, “why hurry ? 
Could we not wait till April for this increase of capital ? 
Or, since you need twenty-five millions more, why not 
issue the stock at a thousand or twelve hundred francs at 
once, which would save you from anticipating the profits 
of the next balance-sheet ? ” 

Nonplussed fora moment, Saccard looked at her, aston- 
ished that she should have thought of that. 

“ Undoubtedly, at eleven hundred francs, instead of 


MONEV. 261 

eight hundred and fifty, the hundred thousand shares 
would give just the twenty-five millions.” 

“ Well, there you have it, then,” she answered. « You 
do not fear that the stockholders will object ? They will 
as readily give eleven hundred francs as eight hundred 
and fifty.” 

“ Oh y es , to be sure ! They will give anything we wish, 
and they will even fight to see who shall give the most ! 
They are insane, they would tear down the building to 
bring us their money. 

a But suddenly he recovered himself, and gave a start of 
violent protest : 

But what are you talking about ? I do not wish to 
ask them for eleven hundred francs, at any price. It 
would really be too stupid and too simple. You must 
understand that, in these questions of credit, it is always 
necessary to strike the imagination. The idea of genius 
is to take from people’s pockets money that is not there. 
Thereby they imagine that they do not give it, but that 
a present has been made them. And then, you do not 
see the colossal effect of this anticipated balance-sheet 
appearing in all the newspapers, of these thirty-six mill- 
ions of gain announced in advance, with a flourish of 
trumpets. The Bourse will take fire, we shall pass the 
figure of two thousand, and we shall rise and rise, and 
shall not stop.” 

He gesticulated, he was standing, lengthening himself 
upon his short legs ; and, in truth, he was becoming tall, 
making gestures to the stars, like a poet of money, of 
whom bankruptcies and ruin had been unable to make a 
prudent man. This was his instinctive system, the very 
impulse of his whole being, this way of lashing business, of 
driving it at the triple gallop of his fever. He had forced 
success, kindled all greeds by this crushing march of the 
Universal : three issues in three years, the capital leaping 
from twenty-five to fifty, to a hundred, to a hundred and 
fifty millions, in a progression which seemed to announce 
a miraculous prosperity. And the dividends, too, had 
gone up by leaps: nothing the first year, then ten francs, 
then thirty-three francs, then the thirty-six millions, the 


262 


MONEY. 


release of all the shares ! And this in the false overheat- 
ing of the whole machine, amid the fictitious subscriptions, 
the shares kept by the Society to make people believe 
that the capital had been entirely paid in, under the im- 
pulse given by speculation at the Bourse, where each in- 
crease of capital exaggerated the rise. 

Hamelin, still buried in the examination of the project, 
had not sustained his sister. He shook his head, and 
came back to observations of detail : 

“ None the less, it is incorrect, your anticipated 
balance-sheet, provided the profits have not actually been 
made. I do not refer now to our enterprises, although 
these are at the mercy of catastrophes, like all human 
affairs. But I see here the Sabatani account, three 
thousand and so many shares, representing more than 
two millions. Now, you place these to our credit, 
whereas they should be placed to our debit, since Saba- 
tani is only our man of straw. We can say these things 
between ourselves, can we not? And, stay! I also 
recognize here several of our employees, even some of 
our directors, all of them prctc-noms — oh ! I see it all, you 
do not need to tell me. It makes me tremble to see that 
we are keeping such a large number of our shares. We 
not only do not take in the cash, but we immobilize our- 
selves, and we shall end by devouring ourselves some 
day.” 

Madame Caroline encouraged him with a look, for he 
was giving voice at last to all her fears ; he was putting 
his finger on the cause of this secret uneasiness which had 
grown up in her as success had grown. 

“Oh ! gambling!” she murmured. 

“ But we do not gamble,” cried Saccard. “ Only it is 
perfectly allowable to sustain our stock, and we should be 
really stupid if we did not look out that Gundermann 
and the others do not depreciate our shares by playing 
against us for a fall. If they have not quite dared to do 
so yet, it may come all the same. That is why I am 
rather glad to have in hand a certain number of our 
shares ; and, I warn you, if they force me to it, I am even 


money. 263 

ready to buy them. Yes! I will buy sooner than let 
them drop a centime.” 

He had uttered these last words with extraordinary 
force, as if he had taken an oath to die rather than be 
beaten. Then, with an effort, he quieted down, and 
began to laugh, with his somewhat grimacing good- 
nature. 

“ See, you are beginning again with your distrust ! I 
thought that we had an explanation once for all about 
these matters. You had consented to place yourselves in 
my hands ; then let me go ahead ! I seek nothing but 
your fortune, a great, grand fortune ! ” 

He interrupted himself, raised his voice, as if frightened 
himself at the enormity of his desire : 

“ You do not know what I want. I want the stock to 
be quoted at three thousand francs.” 

With a gesture he indicated it in the void, he saw it 
rise like a star, inflaming the horizon of the Bourse, this 
triumphant quotation of three thousand francs. 

“ It is madness! ” said Madame Caroline. 

“ As soon as it has gone above two thousand francs,” 
declared Hamelin, “ every new rise will become a source 
of danger ; and for my part I warn you that I will sell, to 
avoid being steeped in such folly.” 

But Saccard began to hum a tune. People are always 
saying that they will sell, and then they do not sell. He 
would enrich them in spite of themselves. Again he 
smiled, in his very caressing way, coupled with a slight air 
of mockery : 

“ Trust in me ; it seems to me that I have not managed 
your business very badly so far. Sadowa brought you a 
million.” 

It was true; the Hamelins had forgotten that : they had 
accepted this million, fished from the troubled waters of 
the Bourse. They remained silent for a moment, turning 
pale, with that trouble on their hearts which afflicts 
people who are still honest and who are no longer certain 
of having done their duty. Had they themselves been 
seized with the gambling leprosy? Were they rotting in 


264 


MONEY. 


this mad medium of money, in which their business forced 
them to live ? 

“ Undoubtedly,” the engineer finally murmured, “ but 
* if I had been here ”... 

Saccard would not let him finish : 

“ Nonsense! you need feel no remorse : it is money re- 
gained from those dirty Jews ! ” 

All three became good-humored. And Madame Caro- 
line, who was sitting, gave a gesture of toleration and 
resignation. Could one eat and not eat others ? It was 
life. To do otherwise would require virtues too sublime, 
or else the solitude of a cloister, free from temptation. 

Come, come, he continued, gayly, “ do not appear to 
spit upon money : in the first place, it is idiotic, and 
then, it is only the powerless who disdain power. It 
would be illogical to kill yourselves to enrich others, 
without cutting off your legitimate share. Otherwise, go 
to bed and sleep ! ” 

He dominated them, would not permit them to say 
another word. 

Do you know that you will soon have a pretty sum 
in your pocket ? Wait ! ” 

j nc ^ a school-boy’s petulance, he had rushed to 
Madame Caroline s table, and seized a pencil and sheet 
of paper, upon which he made columns of figures. 

“ Wait ! I am going to draw up your account. Oh ! I 
know it. You had, at the foundation, five hundred 
shares, doubled a first time and then doubled again 
which gives you now two thousand. So you will have 
three thousand after our next issue.” 

Hamelin tried to interrupt him. 

No, no ! I know that you have the monej' to pay for 
them, with the three hundred thousand francs that you 
inherited on the one hand, and your million of Sadowa on 
the other. See ! your first two thousand shares have cost 
you four hundred and thirty-five thousand francs, the 
other thousand will cost you eight hundred and fifty 
thousand francs, in all twelve hundred and eighty-five 
thousand francs. So you will still have left fifteen thous- 
and francs to play the young man, to say nothing of your 


MONEY. 


265 


salary of thirty thousand francs, which we are going to 
raise to sixty thousand.” * ë 

Both listened to him in bewilderment, and finally 
became violently interested in these figures. y 

“ You see that you are honest, that you pay for what 

ïZZèJSiï** is a mere ^ w£ 

victor/ 036 ’ atld WaVCd the Sheet of pa P er with an air of 

" At rate °f three thousand francs, your three ' 
th ° a ®f‘ ld f hares will give you nine millions.” 

Vhat . at the rate of three thousand francs!” they 

madne£ r ° teStlng With a gCSture a S ainst this persistent 

1 i?V ^ lthout doubt ! I forbid you to sell sooner* I 
shall find a way to prevent you, yes ! by force, by the 
right that one has to prevent his friends from committing 
stupidities. The quotation of three thousand, I must 
have it, I will have it.” 

t0 answer tbis terrible man, whose piercing voice, 
ike the crow of a cock, sounded triumph? They 
laughed again, pretending to shrug their shoulders. And 
they declared that they were perfectly tranquil, that the 
famous quotation would never be reached. He had iust 
sat down to the table again, where he was making other 
calculations, drawing up his own account. Had he paid 
for his three thousand shares? Would he pay for them ? 
that was still uncertain. He must even possess a much 
arger number of shares ; but it was difficult to know 
how many, for he too served as a prête-nom to the So- 
ciety, and how were the shares that belonged to him to 
be distinguished from the others? His pencil length- 
ened out the columns of figures, to infinity. Then, with 
a quick stroke, he ran it through the whole, crushed the 
paper, and put it in his pocket. These and the two mil- 
lions picked up m the mud and blood of Sadowa were his 
share. 

“ I have an appointment, I leave you,” he said, picking 
up his hat. “ But all is agreed, is it not ? In a week the 


266 


MONEY. 


directors’ meeting, and immediately afterward the special 
stockholders’ meeting, to vote.” 

When Madame Caroline and Hamelin were alone again, 
bewildered and weary, they remained silent for a mo- 
ment, sitting opposite each other. 

“ What do you expect ? ” he declared at last, respond- 
ing to his sister’s secret thoughts ; “ here we are, here we 
must remain. He is right in saying that it would be stupid 
in us to refuse this fortune. I have always considered my- 
self only a man of science who brings water to the mill ; 
and I have brought it, I think, clear and abundant, ex- 
cellent affairs, to which the house owes its rapid prosper- 
ity. Then, since no reproach can be put upon me, let us 
not be discouraged, let us work.” 

She had left her chair, staggering, stammering. 

“ Oh ! all this money ! all this money ! ” 

And, choking with invincible emotion at the thought 
of these millions which were about to fall upon them, she 
hung upon his neck and wept. It was with joy undoubt- 
edly, the happiness of seeing him at last worthily re- 
warded for his intelligence and work, but with pain also, 
a pain of which she could not have told the exact cause, 
a pain in which there was something of shame and some- 
thing of fear. He joked her, they still affected cheerful- 
ness, and yet a feeling of uneasiness remained with them, 
a secret dissatisfaction with themselves, the unconfessed 
remorse of a soiling complicity. 

“Yes, he is right,” repeated Madame Caroline ; “every- 
body does it. It is life.” 

The directors’ meeting was held in their room in the 
sumptuous building of the Rue de Londres. It was no 
longer the damp reception-room to which the pale reflec- 
tion of a neighboring garden gave a greenish hue, but a 
vast apartment, lighted from the street by four windows, 
and whose high ceiling and majestic walls, decorated 
with large paintings, were streaming with gold. The 
president’s arm-chair was a veritable throne, dominating 
the other arm-chairs, which stretched continuously, superb 
and grave, as if for a meeting of royal ministers, around 
the immense table, covered with red velvet. And, over 


Money. 


267 


the monumental fire-place of white marble, in which trees 
burned in winter, was a bust of the Pope, an amiable and 
artful face, which seemed to smile maliciously at being- 
thus placed. . s 

Saccaid had finally secured control of all the members 
of the board, by simply buying them, for the most part. 
Thanks to him, the Marquis de Bohain, compromised in 
the matter of a gratuity which looked very much like a 
swindle, caught with his hand in the bottom of the sack, 
had been able to stifle the scandal by making the plun- 
dered corporation whole; and he had thus become his 
humble creature, without ceasing to carry his head high, 
the flower of nobility, the finest ornament of the board. 
Huret, likewise, since Rougon had turned him off, after 
the theft of the despatch announcing the surrender of 
Venice, had given himself entirely to the fortune of the 
Universal, representing it in the Chamber, fishing for it 
in the muddy waters of politics, keeping the larger part 
of the results of his shameless intrigues, which might land 
him some fine day within the walls of Mazas. And the 
Viscount de Robin-Chagot, the vice-president, received a 
secret premium of a hundred thousand francs for giving 
signatures without examination, during Hamelin s long 
absences ; and the banker Kolb also got his pay for his 
passive compliance, by utilizing the power of the house 
abroad, which he went so far as to compromise in his 
purchases of gold ; and Sédille himself, the silk merchant, 
staggered by a terrible liquidation, had borrowed a large 
sum, which he had not been able to return. Daigremont 
alone retained his absolute independence of Saccard : 
which sometimes disturbed the latter, although the 
amiable man remained as charming as ever, inviting 
him to his receptions, signing everything without obser- 
vation, with his good grace of a skeptical Parisian who 
finds that all goes well as long as he wins. 

On this occasion, in spite of the exceptional impor- 
tance of the meeting, the Board was managed as easily as 
on other occasions. It had become an affair of habit: all 
the real work was done at the petty councils of the fif- 
teenth, and the grand councils at the end of the month 


268 


MONEY. 


simply sanctioned the resolutions, with much ceremony. 
So indifferent had the directors become that, the official 
reports threatening to be always the same, steadily com- 
monplace in their uniform approval, it had been necessary 
to attribute to the members scruples, observations, a 
wholly imaginary discussion, which no one was astonished 
to hear read at the next meeting, and which they signed 
without laughing. 

Daigremont had rushed forward and heartily grasped 
Hamelin’s hands, knowing the good, the grand news that 
he brought. 

“ Ah ! my dear president, how glad I am to congratulate 
you ! ” 

All surrounded him and welcomed him, Saccard him- 
self, as if he had not seen him before ; and when the 
meeting was opened, and he had begun the reading of the 
report which he was to present to the stockholders’ meet- 
ing, they listened, — a very unusual thing. The fine re- 
sults accomplished, the magnificent promises for the 
future, the ingenious increase of capital, which at the 
same time released the old shares, all were received 
with admiring nods of the head. And no one had any 
thought of asking for explanations. It was perfect. 
Sédille having pointed out an error in a figure, it was 
even agreed not to insert his remark in the official report, 
in order not to disturb the beautiful unanimity of the 
members, who all signed in rapid succession, under the 
influence of the enthusiasm, without making any obser- 
vation. 

Already the meeting had risen ; they were on their 
feet, laughing and joking, amid the resplendent gildings 
of the room. The Marquis de Bohain described a hunt 
at Fontainebleau ; while the deputy Huret, who had been 
at Rome, told how he had received the blessing of the 
Pope. Kolb had just disappeared, running to keep an 
appointment. And the other directors, the supernumer- 
aries, received orders from Saccard, given in a low tone, 
regarding the attitude which they were to take at the 
approaching meeting. 

But Daigremont, whom the Viscount de Robin-Chagot 


MONEY. 


269 

wearied with his inordinate eulogies of Hamelin s report, 
seized the manager’s arm in the passage-way, to whisper 
in his ear : r 

“ Not too much brag, eh ? ” 

Saccard stopped short, and looked at him. He remem- 
bered how he had hesitated, at the beginning, to go into 
the affair, knowing Saccard to be not very safe in busi- 
ness. 

Ah . who loves me follows me ! ” he answered, in a 
very loud voice, so as to be heard by all. 

Thiee days later the special stockholders’ meeting was 
held in the grand banquet-hall of the Hôtel du Louvre. 
For such a solemnity they had disdained the poor bare 
hall in the Rue Blanche ; they wanted a gala saloon, still 
all warm, between a feast and a wedding ball. According 
to the by-laws, one must possess at least twenty shares in 
order to be admitted, and more than twelve hundred 
stockholders came, representing over four thousand votes. 
The formalities of entrance, the presentation of the tickets, 
and the signatures on the register, took more than two 
hours. A tumult of happy conversation filled the hall, in 
which were to be seen all the directors and many of the 
principal employees of the Universal. Sabatani was 
there, in the middle of a group, talking of the Orient, his 
native country, .in languishing, caressing tones, relating 
marvellous stories, as if there one had only to stoop to 
pick up gold, silver, and precious stones ; and Maugendre, 
who had decided in June to buy fifty shares of Universal 
at twelve hundred francs, convinced that it would go up, 
listened with open mouth, delighted at the keenness of 
his scent ; while Jantrou, who had decidedly fallen into 
crapulous debauchery since he had become rich, secretly 
chuckled, his mouth twisted with irony, in the heavy feel- 
ing left by his debauch of the night before. After the 
nomination of the officers of the meeting, when Hamelin, 
president by right, had opened the session, Lavignière, 
re-elected auditor and who was to be raised after the 
budget to the position of director, his dream, was invited 
to read a report upon the financial situation of the Society 
as it would be on the thirty-first of the next December ; 


270 


MONEY. 


this was a way of verifying in advance, in order to comply 
with the by-laws, the anticipated balance-sheet which they 
were to consider. He recalled the balance-sheet of the 
last budget, presented to the regular stockholders’ meet- 
ing in the month of April, that magnificent balance-sheet 
which showed a net profit of eleven millions and a half, 
and which had permitted, after deducting five per cent, 
for the stockholders, ten per cent, for the directors, and 
ten per cent, for the surplus, the further distribution of a 
dividend of thirty-three per cent. Then he established, 
under a deluge of figures, that the sum of thirty-six mill- 
i'ons, given as an approximate total of the profits of the 
current budget, far from seeming to him exaggerated, fell 
short of the most modest hopes. Undoubtedly he was 
sincere, and he must have examined conscientiously the 
documents submitted for his verification ; but nothing is 
more deceiving, for, in order to study a set of accounts 
thoroughly, it is necessary to reconstruct another com- 
pletely. Besides, the stockholders did not listen. A few 
devotees, Maugendre and others, the small holders who 
represented a vote or two, alone drank in every figure, 
amid the persistent hum of conversation. The verifica- 
tion of the auditors, that was not of the slightest impor- 
tance. And a religious silence was established only when 
Hamelin at last arose. The applause broke out even be- 
fore he had opened his mouth, as an homage to his zeal, 
to the obstinate and brave genius of this man who had 
gone so far in search of barrels of money to empty them 
upon Paris. After that, it was one increasing success, 
turning into apotheosis. They hailed a new reminder of 
the balance-sheet of the previous year, which Lavignière 
had been unable to make them hear. But the estimates 
of the approaching balance-sheet especially excited joy : 
millions for the United Steamers, millions for the Carmel 
silver mine, millions for the Turkish National Bank ; and 
the addition seemed endless, the thirty-six millions 
grouped themselves in an easy and perfectly natural fash- 
ion, falling in a cascade, with a ringing sound. Then the 
horizon broadened further upon the future operations. 
The General Company of Oriental Railways appeared, at 


MONEY. 


2/1 


first the mam central line, upon which work was about to 
begin, then the branches, the entire network of modern 
industry thrown over Asia, the triumphal return of human- 
ity to its cradle, the resurrection of a world ; while, in the 
lost distance, between two phrases, loomed up the thing 
of which they did not speak, the mystery, the crowning 
of the edifice which would astonish the nations. And the 
unanimity was absolute when, in conclusion, Hamelin 
came to the explanation of the resolutions which he was 
going to submit to the vote of the meeting: the capital 
raised to a hundred and fifty millions, the issue of a hun- 
dred thousand new shares at eight hundred and fifty 
francs, the old shares released by means of the premiums 
on these shares and the profits of the next balance-sheet, 
of which they disposed in advance. A thunder of bravos 
welcomed this genial idea. Above all heads could be 
seen Maugendre’s fat hands clapping with all their might. 
On the front seats the directors and employees of the 
house made a furious uproar, dominated by Sabatani, 
who, standing on his feet, shouted : “ Brava, brava ! ” as 
if at the theatre. All the resolutions were voted with en- 
thusiasm. 

Meanwhile, Saccard had planned an incident, which was 
then carried out. He was not ignorant of the fact that 
he was accused of speculating ; he wished to efface even 
the slightest suspicions from the minds of distrustful 
stockholders, if there were any such in the hall. 

Jantrou, coached by him, rose. And, in his thick voice, 
he said : 

“ Monsieur President, I believe I make myself the 
mouth-piece of many stockholders in asking that it be 
established that the Society does not possess one of its 
shares.” 

Hamelin, not being in the secret, stood for a moment 
in embarrassment. Instinctively he turned to Saccard, 
up to this time lost in his seat, who suddenly stood on 
tip-toe to add to his short stature, and answered with his 
piercing voice : 

u Not one, Monsieur President ! ” 

Bravos, no one knew why, again burst forth, at this re- 


2J2 


MONEY. 


ply. Though he really lied, it was nevertheless the truth 
that the Society had not a single share in its own name, 
since Sabatani and the others covered it. And that was 
all ; the applause continued ; they made their exit amid 
much gayety and noise. 

During the days immediately following, the report of 
this meeting, published in the newspapers, produced an 
enormous effect at the Bourse and in all Paris. Jantrou 
had kept for this moment a last shower of puffs, the loud- 
est flourishes that had been blown for a long time on the 
trumpets of publicity ; and he even set a joke afloat ; the 
story was told that he had had the words, “ Buy Univer- 
sal,” tattooed upon the most secret and delicate portions 
of the bodies of lovable ladies, in launching them into cir- 
culation. Moreover, he had just executed at last his 
grand stroke, the purchase of the Cote Financière , the 
solid old journal which had twelve years of stainless hon- 
esty behind it. It had cost a great deal, but the serious 
customers, the trembling bourgeois , the huge fortunes of 
the prudent, the entire mass of self-respecting money, all 
these were gained at a stroke. In a fortnight, at the 
Bourse, the figure of fifteen hundred was reached ; and in 
the last days of August, by successive leaps, the stock 
rose to two thousand. The infatuation was still at fever- 
heat, the paroxysm became constantly more aggravated, 
under the epidemic of stock-jobbery. They bought, they 
bought, even the most prudent, convinced that it would 
go higher yet, that it would go up endlessly. The mys- 
terious caverns of the Thousand and One Nights were 
opening, the incalculable treasures of the caliphs aban- 
doned to the greed of Paris. All the dreams that had 
been whispered for months seemed to be realizing them- 
selves in view of the public enchantment : the cradle of 
humanity reoccupied, the old historic cities of the coast 
resuscitated from their sand. Damascus, then Bagdad, 
then India and China exploited by the invading troop of 
our engineers. This conquest of the Orient, which Na- 
poleon had been unable to accomplish with his sword, a 
financial company was realizing by sending thither an 
army of pick-axes and wheelbarrows. They would con- 


MONEY. 


273 

quer Asia with blows of millions, and receive billions in 
return And especially the crusade of the women tri- 
umphed at the little private five-o’clock gatherings, at 
the grand society midnight receptions, at the table and in 
the alcoves They had clearly foreseen it: Constanti- 
nople was taken, they would soon have Broussa, Angora 
and Aieppo, later they would have Smyrna, Trebizond’ 
all the cities to which the Universal laid siege, until the 
day when they should have the last, the holy city, that 
which they did not name, which was like the Eucharistic 
promise of the far-off expedition. Fathers, husbands, 
lovers, forced by this passionate ardor of the women 
went to give their orders to the brokers only to the re’ 
peated cry : - It is the will of God ! ” Then came at last 
the dreadful crush of the small, the trampling crowd that 
follows large armies, passion descended from the parlor 
to the kitchen, from the bourgeois to the workman and 
the peasant, and which hurled into this mad gallop of 
millions poor subscribers having but one share, three, 
four, ten shares, janitresses nearly ready to retire, old 
maids living with a cat, provincial pensioners with a 
budget of ten sous a day, country priests stripped by 
charities, the whole emaciated and hungry mass of tiny 
capitalists, which a catastrophe of the Bourse sweeps 
away like an epidemic, and lays to rest at one stroke in 
the paupers’ grave. 

And this exaltation of the Universal stock, this ascen- 
sion which carried it away as if on a religious wind 
seemed to be felt in the louder and louder music that 
rose from the Tuileries and the Champ-de-Mars, from the 
continual festivities with which the Exposition infatuated 
Paris. The flags flapped more noisily in the oppressive 
air of the warm days ; there was never an evening when 
the flaming city did not sparkle beneath the stars, like a 
colossal palace in the depths of which revelry went on 
until the dawn. The joy had spread from house to house ; 
the streets were an intoxication ; a cloud of yellow vapors’ 
the steam of festivities, the sweat of couplings, went away 
to the horizon, rolling over the roofs the night of Sodom, 
Babylon, and Nineveh. Since May emperors and kino-s 


274 


MONEY. 


had been coming on a pilgrimage from the four corners 
of the world, never-ending retinues, nearly a hundred sov- 
ereigns and their wives, princes and princesses. Paris 
was satiated with Majesties and Highnesses; it had wel- 
comed the emperor of Russia and the emperor of Austria, 
the sultan and the viceroy of Egypt ; and it had thrown 
itself under carriage-wheels to get a nearer view of the 
king of Prussia, whom M. de Bismarck followed like a 
faithful dog. Salutes of rejoicing continually thundered 
at the Invalides, while the crowd that crushed at the Ex- 
position made a success of the Krupp cannons, enormous 
and sombre, which Germany had exhibited. Almost 
every week the Opera lighted its chandeliers for some 
official festivity. They stifled in the little theatres and 
in the restaurants, the sidewalks were no longer wide 
enough for the overflowing torrent of prostitution. And 
it was Napoleon III. himself who wished to distribute the 
awards to the sixty thousand exhibitors, in a ceremony 
surpassing in magnificence all the others, a glory burning 
on the brow of Paris, the resplendence of the reign, in 
which the emperor appeared, in a delusion of enchant- 
ment, as the master of Europe, speaking with the calm- 
ness of power and promising peace. That very day 
they learned at the Tuileries of the frightful Mexican 
tragedy, of the execution of Maximilian, French blood 
and gold poured out in pure loss; and they concealed 
the news in order not to sadden the festivities. The first 
stroke of the knell, in the decline of that superb day, daz- 
zling with sunlight. . 

Then it seemed, amid this glory, that Saccard’s star 
rose higher yet, to its greatest brilliancy. At last then, 
as had been his endeavor for so many years, he possessed 
fortune as a slave, as a thing of his own, of which one dis- 
poses, which one keeps under lock and key, alive and 
real. So many times falsehood had dwelt in his vaults, 
so many millions had flowed through them, escaping by 
all sorts of unknown holes! No, this was no longer the 
lying wealth of the façade, it was the real kingdom of 
gold, solid, enthroned upon full sacks ; and this kingdom 
he did not exercise like a Gundermann, after an economy 


MONEY. 


275 

of a long line of bankers; he proudly flattered himself 
that it was his own conquest, like a captain of adventure 
who conquers a kingdom at a stroke. Often, in the days 
of his land speculations in the Quartier de l’Europe, he 
had risen very high ; but never had he felt conquered 
Paris so humble at his feet. And he recalled the day 
when, breakfasting at Champeaux’, doubting his star, 
ruined once more, he cast famishing glances at the 
Bourse, seized with the fever to begin everything again, 
to reconquer everything, in a fury of revenge. Accord- 
ingly» now that he had become master again, what a 
hunger for enjoyments! In the first place, as soon as 
he believed himself omnipotent, he dismissed Huret ; he 
charged Jantrou with launching against Rougon an arti- 
cle in which the minister, in the name of the Catholics, 
was squarely accused of playing a double game in the 
Roman question. Tins was the definitive declaration of 
war between the two brothers. Since the covenant of 
December 15, 1864, and especially since Sadowa, the 
clericals had pretended to be deeply anxious about the 
Pope s situation ; and from that time V Espérance, resum- 
ing its old ultramontane politics, violently attacked the 
liberal empire, such as the decrees of January 19 had be- 
gun to make it. A word that Saccard had uttered circu- 
lated in the Chamber ; he said that, in spite of his pro- 
found affection for the emperor, he would resign himself 
to Henry V. rather than allow the revolutionary spirit to 
lead France into catastrophes. Then, his audacity in- 
creasing with his victories, he no longer concealed his 
plan of attacking the Jewish high bank, in the person of 
Gundermann, in whose billion he intended to open a 
breach, pending the assault and final capture. The Uni- 
versal having grown so miraculously, why should not this 
house, sustained by entire Christianity, become, a few 
years hence, the sovereign mistress of the Bourse? And 
he posed as a rival, as a neighboring king, of equal power, 
full of quarrelsome boast ; while Gundermann, very 
phlegmatic, without even permitting himself a grimace 
of irony, continued to watch and to wait, simply seeming 
very much interested by the continual rise of stocks, like 


276 


MONEY. 


a man who has put all his strength into patience and 
logic. 

It was his passion which had thus elevated Saccard, 
and it was his passion which was to ruin him. In the 
gorging of his appetite, he would have liked to discover 
a sixth sense, in order to satisfy it. Madame Caroline, 
who had reached the point where she smiled always, even 
when her heart was bleeding, remained a friend to whom 
he listened with a sort of conjugal deference. The 
Baroness Sandorff, whose bruised eyelids and red lips 
were decidedly liars, had ceased to amuse him, with 
her icy coldness, amid her perverse curiosities. And be- 
sides, he himself had never known grand passions, belong- 
ing to this world of money, too busy, spending his nerves 
elsewhere, paying for love by the month. Accordingly, 
when the idea of woman came to him, on the heap of his 
new millions, he thought only of buying one at a very 
high price, in order to parade her before all Paris, as he 
would have made himself a present of a huge diamond, 
simply satisfying his vanity by sticking it in his cravat! 
Then, was it not an excellent means of advertising ? A 
man capable of putting much money into a woman, has 
he not from that time a quoted fortune? Directly his 
choice fell upon Madame de Jeumont, at whose house he 
had dined two or three times with Maxime. She was 
still very handsome at thirty-six, the regular and serious 
beauty of a Juno, and her great reputation was due to the 
fact that the emperor had paid her for one night a hun- 
dred thousand francs, to say nothing of the decoration 
for her husband, a correct man who had no other position 
than that of husband of his wife. Both lived on a grand 
scale, went everywhere, to the ministries, to court, sup- 
ported by select and chosen bargains, three or four nights 
a year sufficing to sustain them. It was known that she 
cost honibly dear, that she was the most distinguished 
woman in the market. And Saccard, particularly excited 
by the desire for a bite of this emperor’s morsel, went as 
high as two hundred thousand francs, the husband having 
frowned at first upon this suspicious old financier, com 


monev. 


277 

sidering him too insignificant a personage and of compro- 
! mising immorality. 

It was about this same time that the little Madame 
Conin squarely refused to take pleasure with Saccard. 
He was a great frequenter of the stationers shop in the 
Kue Peydeau, always having to buy supplies, very much 
attracted by this adorable blonde, pink and plump, with 
i silvery, silky locks, a little curly-haired sheep, pleas- 

mg, coaxing, invariably gay. 

“ No, I will not ; never with you ! ” 

When she had said never, it was a settled matter; 
nothing could make her reconsider her refusal. 

“ But wh y? I surely saw you with another, one day as 
you were coming out of a hotel in the Passage de Pano- 
ramas. ’ 

She blushed, but without ceasing to look him bravely 
in the face.. This hotel, kept by an old lady, her friend, 
served her in fact as a place of meeting, when a caprice 
led hei to yield to some gentleman of the financial world, 
in the hours when her worthy husband was sizing his 
books and when she was tramping about Paris, always 
I outside attending to the business of the house. 

“ You know well enough, Gustave Sédille, that young 
man, your lover.” 

With a pretty gesture she protested. No, no ! she had 
no. lover. Not a man could boast of having had her 
twice. What did he take her for ? Once, yes ! by chance, 
for pleasure s sake, nothing ever following in consequence Î 
And all remained her friends, very grateful, very discreet.* 

“ It is then because I am no longer a young man ? ” 

But with a new gesture, with her perpetual laugh, she 
seemed to say that she laughed at the idea of youth. 
She had yielded to older men, to men less handsome, 
often to poor devils. 

“ Why, then ? Tell me why.” 

“ My God ! it is simple enough. Because you do not 
please me. With you, never ! ” 

And nevertheless she was very amiable, seeming grieved 
at being unable to satisfy him. 

“ Come, he replied, brutally, “ you shall have anything 


MONEV. 


278 

you like. Will you take a thousand, will you take two 
thousand, for once, just once?” 

She said no with a graceful movement of her head. 

“ Will you . . . Come, will you take ten thousand ? ” 

Gently she stopped him, laying her little hand upon his 
own. 

“ Not ten, not fifty, not a hundred thousand ! You 
might go up a long time like that, but it would be no, 
always no. You see that I do not wear a single jewel. 
Ah ! I have been offered these things, money and every- 
thing! I want nothing; isn’t it enough when it gives 
pleasure? You must understand that my husband loves 
me with all his heart, and that I love him very much also. 
He is a very honest man, my husband. Then, surely I 
am not going to kill him by causing him chagrin. What 
do you expect me to do with your money, since I cannot 
give it to my husband ? We are not unfortunate, we shall 
retire some day with a pretty fortune; and, if these 
gentlemen are all friendly enough to continue to buy 
their supplies of us, that I accept. Oh ! I do not pretend 
to be more disinterested than I am. If I were alone, I 
might see. But, once more, you do not imagine that my 
husband would take your hundred thousand francs after 
I had slept with you. No, no ! not for a million ! ” 

And she was obstinate ; Saccard, exasperated by this 
unexpected resistance, besieged her for almost a month. 
She upset him, with her laughing face, her large soft eyes, 
full of compassion. What ! money did not then give 
everything? Here was a woman whom others had for 
nothing, and whom he could not have, he, by offering a 
mad pi ice ! She said no, it was. her will. He suffered 
from it cruelly, in his triumph, as from a doubt of his 
strength, from a secret disillusion as to the power of gold 
which he had hitherto believed to be absolute and sover- 
eign. 

But one evening, however, he enjoyed the keenest satis- 
faction of his vanity. It was the culminating moment of 
existence. There was a ball at the ministry of foreign 
affairs, and he had chosen this festivity, given à proposai 
the Exposition, to call the public’s attention to his hap- 


MONEY. 


m 


piness of a night, with Madame de Jeumont; for it was 
always a part of the bargains made by this beautiful 
person that the happy purchaser should have, once, the 
right to parade her, so that the affair might have all the 
desired publicity. So, towards midnight, in the salons 
where bare shoulders were crushed among black coats, 
under the brilliant light of the chandeliers, Saccard 
entered, with Madame de Jeumont on his arm, the hus- 
band following. When they appeared, the groups parted, 
opening a broad passage for this caprice of two hundred 
thousand francs thus exhibited, for this scandal made by 
violent appetites and mad prodigality. They smiled, 
they whispered, with an amused air, without anger, amid 
the intoxicating odor of busts, in the distant lulling of the 
orchestra. But at the rear of a salon, quite another flood 
of curiosity-seekers pressed around a colossus, dressed in 
the white uniform of a cuirassier, dazzling and superb. It 
was the Count de Bismarck, whose tall stature towered 
above all heads, laughing with a broad laugh, with big 
eyes, strong nose, and a powerful jaw, crossed by the 
mustache of a conquering barbarian. After Sadowa, he 
had just given Germany to Prussia ; the treaties of al- 
liance against France, so long denied, had been signed for 
months ; and war, which had come near breaking out in 
May, à propos of the Luxembourg affair, was thenceforth 
inevitable. When Saccard, triumphant, crossed the room, 
with Madame de Jeumont on his arm and followed by the 
husband, the Count de Bismarck interrupted his laughter 
for a moment, like a bantering good-natured giant, to 
curiously watch them pass. 


IX. 


Again Madame Caroline found herself alone. Hamelin 
had remained in Paris until the early part of November, 
for the formalities necessitated by the definitive constitu- 
tion of the Society with a capital of a hundred and fifty 
millions, and again it was he who, in obedience to Sac- 
card’s desire, was to go to make the legal declarations at 
the office of the notary Lelorrain, in the Rue Sainte-Anne, 
affirming that all the shares had been subscribed and the 
capital paid in, which was not true. Then he started for 
Rome, where he was to spend two months, having to 
study some important matters there, about which he kept 
silent, undoubtedly his famous dream of the Pope at 
Jerusalem, as well as another project more practical and 
considerable, that of the transformation of the Universal 
into a Catholic bank, resting on the Christian interests of 
the entire world, a vast machine destined to crush the 
Jewish bank and sweep it from the globe ; and thence he 
intended to return once more to the Orient, whither he 
was called by the work on the railway from Broussa to 
Bey rout. He went away happy over the rapid prosperity 
of the house, absolutely convinced of its immovable so- 
lidity, feeling really only a secret anxiety on account of 
its too great success. Accordingly, the day before his 
departure, in a conversation with his sister, he made but 
one urgent recommendation,— that she should resist the 
general infatuation, and sell their shares if the price should 
rise above two thousand two hundred francs, because he 
intended to protest personally against this continual rise, 
which he deemed mad and dangerous. 

As soon as she was alone, Madame Caroline felt still 
more troubled by the overheated surroundings in which 


money. 


281 

ühe lived Toward the first week in November, the figure 
of two thousand two hundred was reached ; and around 
er there was rapture, cries of thanksgiving and unlimited 
hope : Dejoie had just melted in gratitude, the Beauvil- 
liers ladies treated her as an equal, as a friend of the god 
who was going to restore their ancient house. A concert 
of benedictions arose from the happy multitude of the 
small. an d the great : daughters at last supplied with 
dowries, the poor suddenly enriched, assured of a pension 
the rich burning with the insatiable joy of being richer 
sun On the morrow of the Exposition, in Paris intoxi- 
cated with pleasure and power, the hour was unique, an 
hour of faith in good fortune, the certainty of endless luck. 
All values had risen, the weakest found credulous believ- 
ers, a plethora of doubtful affairs swelled the market 
congested it to the point of apoplexy, while underneath 
sounded the void, the real exhaustion of a reign which 
had enjoyed much, spent billions in grand works, fattened 
enormous houses of credit, whose yawning vaults were 
opening in all directions. At the first crack, in this mddi- 
ness, would come the break-up. And Madame Camline 
undoubtedly had this anxious presentiment when she felt 
her. heart compressed at each new leap in the price of 
Universal. No evil rumor was current, scarcely a slight 
tremor of the bears, astonished and subdued. Yet she 
was perfectly conscious of a feeling of uneasiness, some- 
thing that was already undermining the edifice ; but what ? 
Nothing precise manifested itself, and she was forced to 
wait, in view of . the brilliancy of the growing triumph, in 
s pite of those slight shocks which portend catastrophes. 

Moreover, Madame Caroline had another trouble. At 
the Work of Labor they were at last satisfied with Victor, 
who had become silent and cunning ; and, if she had not 
already told everything to Saccard, it was from a singular 
feeling of embarrassment, postponing her story from day 
to day, suffering from the shame that would be his. On 
the other hand, Maxime, to whom about this time she 
paid the two thousand francs out of her own pocket, joked 
about the four thousand for which Busch and the Méchain 
were still clamoring : these people were robbing her, his 


Money. 


282 

father would be furious. So from that time she rejected 
the repeated demands of Busch, who insisted on the 
balance of the promised sum. After numerous applica- 
tions, he finally became angry, especially as his old idea 
of blackmailing Saccard had revived, since the new situa- 
tion of the latter, this lofty situation in which he believed 
him at his mercy, in view of the fear of scandal. So one 
day, exasperated at getting nothing from such a fine affair, 
he resolved to apply directly to him; he wrote to him, 
asking him to be good enough to step into his office, to 
look into some old papers which had been found in a 
house in the Rue de la Harpe. He gave the number, and 
made so clear an allusion to the old story that, in his 
opinion, Saccard would be seized with anxiety, and could 
not fail to obey the summons. But this letter, carried 
to the Rue Saint-Lazare, happened to fall into the hands 
of Madame Caroline, who recognized the writing. She 
trembled ; she queried for a moment whether she ought 
not to run to Busch’s office and try to buy him off. Then 
she said to herself that perhaps he was writing about 
something else, and that at any rate this was a way of 
ending the matter, happy even, in her emotion, that the 
embarrassment of the confidence was to fall upon another. 
But at night, when Saccard returned and opened the letter 
in her presence, she simply saw a grave expression come 
over his face, and thought it must be some money com- 
plication. Yet he had felt a profound surprise, his throat 
had contracted, at the idea of falling into such filthy hands, 
scenting some ignominy. With a tranquil gesture he put 
the letter into his pocket, and decided to go to the rendez- 
vous . 

Days passed away, the second fortnight of November 
arrived, and every morning Saccard postponed his visit, 
bewildered by the torrent which bore him along. The 
figure of two thousand three hundred francs had just 
been passed ; he was delighted, though feeling at the 
Bourse a resistance forming, and becoming more pro- 
nounced as the rise continued. Evidently a group of 
bears were taking their positions, entering upon the 
struggle, timidly as yet, in simple outpost combats. And 


MONÈV. 


283 

twice he was obliged to give orders to purchase, himself, 
under prête-noms, in order that the upward march of the 
quotations might not be stopped. The system of the 
Society buying its own shares and speculating with them, 
devouring itself, was beginning. 

One evening, thoroughly stirred with his passion, Sac- 
card could not help speaking to Madame Caroline of the 
matter. 

“ I really believe things are getting warm. Oh Î we 
are too strong, we embarrass them too much. I scent 
Gundermann, it is his tactics: he is going to proceed 
with regular sales, so much to-day, so much to-morrow, 
increasing the figure until he shakes us.” 

She interrupted him with her serious voice : 

“ If he has Universal, he is right in selling.” 

“What ! he is right in selling?” 

“ Undoubtedly ; my brother told you so ; all quotations 
above two thousand are absolutely crazy.” 

He looked at her, and burst out, beside himself : 

“ Sell, then.; dare to sell, yourself ; yes, play against 
me, since you want my defeat.” 

She blushed slightly, for only the day before she had 
sold a thousand of her shares, in obedience to her brother’s 
orders, relieved herself also by this sale, as if by a tardy 
act of honesty. But since he did not question her directly, 
she made no confession, but became the more embarrassed 
when he added : 

“ Thus, yesterday, there were some defections, I am 
sure. A whole package of shares was put upon the 
market ; the price would certainly have declined, if I had 
not stepped in. It is not Gundermann who makes those 
strokes. He has a slower method, more crushing in the 
long run. Ah ! my dear, I am perfectly confident, but I 
tremble all the same, for it is nothing to defend one’s life, 
the worst is to defend one’s money and that of others.” 

In fact, starting from that moment, Saccard ceased to 
belong to himself. He belonged to the millions he was 
making, triumphant and ever on the verge of defeat. He 
no longer found time even to go to see the Baroness 
Sandorff, in the little ground-floor of the Rue Caumartim 


MONEY. 


284 

In truth, she had wearied him with the falsehood of her 
flaming eyes, this coldness which her perverse attempts 
did not succeed in warming. Moreover, he had had an 
unpleasant experience, the same which he had inflicted 
upon Delcambre : one evening, this time through a maid’s 
stupidity, he had entered at a moment when the Baroness 
was in Sabatani’s arms. In the stormy explanation that 
had followed, he was calmed only by a complete confes- 
sion, — a confession of simple curiosity, guilty doubtless, 
but so easily to be explained. All the women were so 
crazy over this Sabatani that she had been unable to 
resist. And Saccard forgave her, when, in answer to a 
brutal question, she had said that, my God ! after all, he 
was not so astonishing. Now he seldom saw her more 
than once a week, not that he nursed any resentment, 
but because she simply bored him. 

Then the Baroness Sandorff, who felt that he. was 
breaking away from her, relapsed into her former igno- 
rance and doubts. Since she began to confess him. in their 
hours of intimacy, she gambled almost with certainty and 
made much money, largely owing to her luck. Now she 
clearly saw that he was unwilling to answer, she even feared 
that he might be lying to her; and whether because her 
luck had turned, or whether he had indeed been amusing 
himself by starting her on a false scent, there came a day 
when she lost by following his advice. Her faith was 
shaken. If he misled her thus, who then would guide 
her now ? And the worst was that the tremor of hostility 
to the Universal, at the Bourse, at first so slight, was 
growing day by day. There were still only rumors ; 
nothing precise was formulated ; no fact made any inroad 
upon the solidity of the house. Only it was tacitly allowed 
that there must be something the matter, that the worm 
was in the fruit. Which, however, did not prevent the 
rise of the stock from becoming more pronounced and 
formidable. 

After an operation in Italian stock which had proved 
disastrous, the Baroness, decidedly anxious, resolved to 
pay a visit to the office of V Espérance to try to make 
Jantrou talk. 


MONEY. 


285 


‘‘Come, what’s the matter? You must know, you. 
Ine Universal just now went up twenty francs higher 

a 'u * lere ls a rumor afloat, no one can tell me exactly 
what, but at any rate nothing very good.” 

But Jantrou was in equal perplexity. Placed at the 
source of reports, manufacturing them himself in case of 
need, he jokingly compared himself to a clockmaker, who 
lives amid hundreds of clocks and never knows the exact 
time. Thanks to his advertising agency, though he was 
m the confidence of all, he no longer had any single and 
solid opinion of his own, for his informations crossed and 
destroyed each other. 

“ I know nothing, nothing at all.” 

“ Oh ! you don’t want to tell me.” 

“ No > 1 know nothing, upon my word ! Why, I was 
even thinking of going to see you to question you ! Is 
Saccard no longer agreeable ? ” 

She gave a gesture, which confirmed him in what he 
had divined : an end of the liaison through mutual weari- 
ness, the woman sulky, the lover grown cold, talking no 
more. For a moment he regretted not having played the 
rôle of the well-informed man in order to take his pay at 
last, as he said, from this little Ladricourt, whose father 
received him with kicks. But he felt that his hour had 
not come; and he continued to look at her, reflecting- 
aloud: s 

“Yes, it is annoying, when I was counting on you. 
Because, you see, if there is to be a catastrophe, one ought 
to be forewarned, in order to have time to turn round. 
Oh ! I do not think there is any hurry ; it is very solid 
still. Only we see such queer things.” 

As he thus gazed at her, a plan took shape in his head. 

“ Say,” he resumed abruptly, “ since Saccard drops you, 
you ought to get on good terms with Gundermann.” 

She sat for a moment in surprise. 

Gundermann, why? I know him a little; I have met 
him at the de Roivilles’ and at the Kellers’.” 

“ So much the better if you know him. Go to see him 
on some pretext, talk with him, try to be his friend. Just 


286 


MONEY. 


imagine that : to be Gundermann’s good friend, to govern 
the world ! ” 

And he chuckled over the licentious pictures which he 
evoked with a gesture, for the Jew’s coldness was well 
known ; there could be nothing more complicated or 
more difficult than to seduce him. The Baroness, under- 
standing, smiled slightly, without taking offence. 

“ But,” she repeated, “ why Gundermann ? ” 

Then he explained that certainly Gundermann was at 
the head of the group of bears who were beginning to 
manœuvre against the Universal. This he knew ; he had 
the proof. Since Saccard was not agreeable, was it not 
the part of simple prudence to make friends with his ene- 
my, at the same time not breaking with him ? With a 
foot in each camp, she would be sure, on the day of battle, 
to be in the company of the conqueror. And he pro- 
posed this treason with an amiable air, simply as a good 
adviser. With a woman at work for him, he would sleep 
very tranquilly. 

“ Come, what do you say ? let us make a bargain. We 
will warn each other, we will tell each other everything 
that we hear.” 

As he grasped her hand, she withdrew it with an in- 
stinctive movement, thinking that he meant something 
else. 

“ Oh ! no, I think of that no longer, since we are com- 
rades. Later you shall reward me.” 

Laughing, she abandoned her hand to him, which he 
kissed. And she was already without contempt, forget- 
ting the lackey that he had been, no longer detecting him 
in the festive debauchery into which he had fallen, his 
face ruined, with his handsome beard poisoned by ab- 
sinthe, his new coat soiled with spots, his shining hat 
streaked with plaster from some disreputable stairway. 

The next day the Baroness Sandorff called upon Gun- 
dermann. The latter, since the Universal stock had 
reached the figure of two thousand francs, had indeed 
been pushing a bear movement, with the utmost discre- 
tion, never going to the Bourse, without even an official 
representative there. His argument was that a share is 


MONEY. 


287 

worth in the first placets par value, then the interest 
which it can give and which depends upon the prosperity 
of the house and the success of its enterprises. There is, 
then, a maximum value which it cannot reasonably ex- 
ceed ; and, as soon as it exceeds it, through public infat- 
uation, the rise is factitious, and it is the part of prudence 
to prepare for a fall, in the certainty that it must come. 
But despite his conviction and his absolute belief in logic, 
he was surprised at Saccard’s rapid conquests, at this 
power which had grown up so suddenly and which was 
beginning to frighten the Jewish high bank. It was 
necessary to strike down this dangerous rival as soon as 
possible, not only to get back the eight millions lost the 
day after Sadowa, but especially to avoid having to share 
the royalty of the market with this terrible adventurer, 
whose recklessness seemed to succeed, against all common 
sense, as if by miracle. And Gundermann, full of con- 
tempt for passion, pushed still further his phlegm of a 
mathematical gambler, his cold obstinacy of a human 
numeral, selling always in spite of the continual rise, losing 
at each liquidation larger and larger sums, with the beau- 
tiful security of a prudent man who simply puts his money 
in the savings-bank. 

When the Baroness succeeded at last in entering, amid 
the jostle of the employees and remisiers , the hail of doc- 
uments to be signed and despatches to be read, she found 
the banker suffering from a horrible cold which was tear- 
ing his throat. Nevertheless he had been there since six 
o’clock in the morning, coughing and spitting, worn out 
with fatigue, but solid just the same. On this occasion, 
on the eve of a foreign loan, thp vast room was invaded 
by a more than usually hurried flood of visitors, who were 
received like a gust of wind by two of his sons and one 
of his sons-in-law ; while, on the floor, near the narrow 
table which he had reserved for himself at the back, in the 
embrasure of a window, three of his grandchildren, two 
little girls and a boy, were disputing with shrill cries over 
a doll from which they had already torn an arm and a leg. 
The Baroness immediately presented her excuse : 

“ Dear Monsieur, I wanted to show in person the cour- 


288 


MONEY. 


age of my importunity. I come in the interest of a benev- 
olent lottery.” 

He did not allow her to finish ; he was very charitable, 
and always took two tickets, especially when ladies whom 
he had met in society thus took the trouble to bring them 
to him. 

But he had to excuse himself ; an employee came to 
submit some papers in a matter of business. Enormous 
figures were rapidly exchanged. 

“ Fifty-two millions, you say? And the credit was? ” 

“ Sixty millions, Monsieur.” 

“ Well, carry it to seventy-five millions.” 

He came back to the Baroness, when a word caught in 
a conversation between his son-in-law and a remisier 
started him off again : 

“ Why, not at all. At the rate of five hundred and 
eighty-seven fifty, that makes ten sous less per share.” 

“ Oh ! Monsieur,” said the remisier , humbly, “ since 
that would make only forty-three francs less ! ” 

“ What, forty-three francs ! Why, it is enormous ! Do 
you think that I steal money? Every one his due; I 
know no rule but that ! ” 

Finally, that they might talk at their ease, he decided 
to take the Baroness into the dining-room, where the 
table was already laid. He was not taken in by the pre- 
text of a benevolent lottery, for he knew her liaison , 
thanks to an obsequious police which kept him informed, 
and he strongly suspected that she had come from a mo- 
tive of serious interest. Consequently he did not stand 
on ceremony. 

“ Come now, tell me what you have to say.” 

But she pretended surprise. She had nothing to say 
to him, she simply wanted to thank him for his kindness. 

“ Then you have been charged with no commission for 
me ? ” 

And he seemed disappointed, as if he had thought for 
a moment that she came with a secret mission from Sac- 
card, some invention of this madman. 

Now that they were alone, she looked at him with a 


MONEY. 


289 

m"n e so1selessV rdent a " d deCdtfuI which excited 

“ No, no, I have nothing to say to you ; and since vou 
ar |f S°°d, I would sooner ask something of you.” Y 
She had leaned over toward him, lightly grazing his 
knees with her delicate gloved hands. And she made a 

C h nf ^ S M 0n V t0 j ° f her de P lorabIe marriage to a foreigner 
who did not understand her nature or her needs explaîned 
how she had had to take to gambling to avoid ^falling 

the^nere* FinaI1 y she *P°ke of her solitude, o! 

Ground °p bemg ad , vlsed ’ guided, over this frightful 
g ° R d f ?, f , the ® ourse - ''' hcre each fals e step cost so dear. 

„ 5$ he mterrupted, “ I thought you had some one.” 
Uh! some one, she murmured, with a gesture of 
profound disdain. “ No, no, no one, I have no one. It 

And° U sh< ?j d Ilke to have - the master, the god. 

And really it would not cost you much to be my friend 

to speak a word to me, just a word, now and then. If 

t°1 kn .‘f[ how ha PPy you would make me, how grateful 
I should be to you, oh ! with all my being 1 ” 

She drew nearer, enveloping him w'ith her warm breath, 
with the keen strong odor exhaled by her person. But 
he remained very calm, aijd did not even draw back, his 
ttesh dead, not an impulse to check. While she spoke he 
whose stomach also was destroyed, and who lived upon 
milk, took one by one, from a fruit-dish on the table 
some grapes, which he ate with a mechanical gesture’ 
the sole debauch which he permitted himself occasionally 
in hours of great sensuality, having to pay for it with days 
of suffering. 

He gave a cunning smile, like a man who knows that 
he is invincible, when the Baroness, with an air of forget- 
fulness, in the fire of her prayer, finally laid upon ’’his 
knee her little tempting hand, with its devouring fingers, 
as supple as a coil of adders. Pleasantly he took this 
hand, and put it from him, saying thank you with a move- 
ment of his head, as one would refuse a useless gift. And 
without wasting further time, going straight to the point 
he said : 

“ Oh ! you are very pleasing, and I should like to be 


MONEY. 


29O 

agreeable to you. My beautiful friend, on the day when 
you shall bring me a bit of good counsel, I promise to 
give you one in return. Come and tell me what others 
are doing, and I will tell you what I shall do. A bargain, 

then ?” . . 

He had risen, and she was obliged to return with him 
into the large room adjoining. She had perfectly under- 
stood the bargain which he proposed, the spy s task, the 
treason. But she was unwilling to answer, she pretended 
to return to the subject of her benevolent lottery ; while 
he, with a bantering shake of his head, seemed to add 
that he did not really need to be aided, that the logical, 
inevitable dénouement would come just the same, though 
perhaps a little later. And when at last she had gone, 
his attention was immediately taken by other matters, in 
the extraordinary tumult of this market of capital, amid 
the procession of people of the Bourse, the gallop of his 
employees, and the play of his grandchildren, who had 
just torn the doll’s head off with shouts of triumph. He 
was seated at his narrow table, absorbed in the study of 
a sudden idea, and heard nothing more. 

Twice the Baroness Sandorff returned to the office of 
F Espérance to report her progress to Jantrou, but without 
finding him. Finally Dejoie admitted her, one day when 
his daughter Nathalie was talking with Madame Jordan 
on a bench in the passage. A diluvian rain had been 
falling since the day before ; and in this wet gray weather 
the entresol of the old building, at the back of the court- 
yard which was now a dark pool, seemed frightfully mel- 
ancholy. The gas was burning in a muddy half-light. 
Marcelle, who was waiting for Jordan, gone out in search 
of money to pay a new instalment to Busch, was sadly 
listening to Nathalie chattering like a vain magpie, with 
her dry voice and sharp gestures of a Parisian girl matured 
too quickly : 

“You understand, Madame, Papa will hot sell. There 
is a lady who is urging him to sell, trying to frighten him. 
I do not give her name, because surely it is hardly her 
place to frighten people. Now it is I who prevent Papa 


MONEY. 


29I 

from selling. Sell when it is going up! One who did 
that would indeed be a simpleton, wouldn’t he ? ” 

.. ^ ertal nly, answered Marcelle, simply. 

You know that it has reached two thousand five hun 

cause Paoà hTrdf u “ 1 kee P the accounts, be- 

cause Papa hardly knows how to write. With our eight 

shares that gives us already twenty thousand francs. S A 
pretty sum, eh ? At first Papa wanted to stop at eighteen 
thousand that was his figure : six thousand francs for my 
dowry and twelve thousand for him, a little income of 
six hundred francs which he would have well earned with 
all these emotions. But how lucky that he did not sell 
since now we have two thousand francs more ! Now we 

a W ti n e sr° re A St J n ’ We i W u n u a ” , income of a thousand francs 
at least. And we shall have it, Monsieur Saccard has told 

us so. He is so nice, Monsieur Saccard ! ” 

Marcelle could not help smiling. 

“Then you no longer intend to marry? ” 

Yes, yes, when it has finished going up. We were in 
a hurry, especially Théodore’s father, on account of his 
business. But what do you expect? One cannot stop 
up the source when the money is coming in. Oh' 
Theodore understands it very well, especially as the larger 
Papa s income, the more capital will come to us some 
day. That is worth considering. Then everybody is 
waiting. We have had the six thousand francs for 
months, we might have married ; but we preferred to let 
them make little ones. Do you read the stock reports 5 ” 
But, without waiting for a reply, she went on: 

“ 1 read them every evening, Papa brings me the news- 
papers. He has already read them, and I have to read 
them to him over again. One could never tire of it, so 
beautiful are the promises which they make. When I «-o 
to bed, my head is full of them ; I dream of them at 
night. And Papa tells me also that he sees things which 
are a very good sign. Day before yesterday we had the 
same dream, of five-franc pieces taken up by the shovel- 
ful, in the street. It was very amusing.” 

Again she interrupted herself to ask * 

“ How many shares have you ? ” 


292 


MONEY. 


« We, not one!” answered Marcelle. 

Nathalie’s little blonde face, with its light floating hair, 
assumed an expression of immense pity. Ah . the poor 
people who had no shares ! And her father having called 
her to ask her to carry a package of proofs to an editor, 
on her way back to the Batignolles, she went away, with 
the amusing importance of a capitalist, who now came 
down to the newspaper office almost every day in older 
to know the Bourse quotations at the earliest possible 

m Left alone on her bench, Marcelle fell back into a mel- 
ancholy reverie, she who was usually so gay and brave. 
My God ! how dark it was, how sad it was. and her poor 
husband running about the streets in this diluvian rain ! 
He had such a contempt for money, felt such an uneasi- 
ness at the very idea of occupying himself with it ; it cost 
him such a great effort to ask it even from those who 
owed it to him! And she recalled her day’s experience 
since waking in the morning, this evil day, absorbed, hear- 
ing nothing; while around her went on the feverish work 
oAhe newspaper office, the gallop of the editors, the go- 
ings and comings of the copy, amid the slamming of doors 

and the ringing of bells. , . T , ,, 

In the first place, at nine o’clock, just as Jordan had 
crone out to investigate an accident which he was to re- 
port, Marcelle, scarcely washed and still in her morning 
wrapper, had been astounded to see Busch fall in upon 
them, accompanied by two very dirty-looking men, perhaps 
sheriff’s officers, perhaps bandits, she never could tell ex- 
actly which. This abominable Busch, undoubtedly taking 
advantage of the fact that there was only a woman there, 
declared that they were going to seize everything if she 
did not pay him on the spot. And she had argued the 
matter in vain, being unacquainted with any of the legal 
formalities: he served the notice of judgment and of the 
posting of the placard so stoutly that she was left in be- 
wilderment, believing at last in the possibility of these 
things, without knowing them. But she did not surren- 
der, explained that her husband would not return even 
to breakfast, and that she would allow nothing to be 


money. 


293 


touched in his absence. Then, between the three sus- 
picious personages and this young woman, but half 
dressed with her hair streaming down her shoulders, had 
begun the most painful of scenes, they already making an 
inventory of the furniture, she shutting up the closets and 
standing in front of the doors as if to prevent them from 
taking anything out. Her poor little apartments of which 
she was so proud, her four pieces of furniture which she 
so often polished, the Turkish red hangings of the cham- 
ber which she had put up herself ! She shouted with war- 
like bravery that they would have to walk over her body ; 
and she called Busch canaille and thief, at random : yes’ 
a thief, who was not ashamed to demand seven hundred 
and thirty francs and fifteen centimes, to say nothing of 
the new costs, for a claim of three hundred francs, a claim 
purchased by him for a hundred sous, in a heap, together 
with rags and old iron ! To think that they had already 
paid four hundred francs in instalments, and that this 
thief talked of carrying off their furniture in payment of 
the three hundred and odd francs which he wished to 
steal from them also ! And he knew perfectly well that 
they were honest people, that they would have paid 
directly if they had had the necessary sum. And he took 
advantage of the fact that she was alone, incapable of 
answering, ignorant of legal processes, to frighten her and 
to make her cry. Canaille! thief ! thief ! Busch, furious, 
shouted louder than she, and violently beat his breast! 
Was he not an honest man? Had he not paid for the 
claim in hard cash? He was acting under the law, and 
he intended to make an end of the matter. Meanwhile, 
as one of the two very dirty men was opening the bureau 
drawers, in search of the linen, she assumed such a terrible 
attitude, threatening to rouse the house and the street, 
that the Jew softened down a little. Finally, after an! 
other half-hour of vehement discussion, he had consented 
to wait until the next day, making a furious oath that 
then he would take everything if she failed to keep her 
promise. Oh! the burning shame from which she still 
suffered, these wicked men in their rooms, woundino- all 
her feelings, her modesty, fumbling even in the bed, in- 


MONËV. 


m 

fecting the happy chamber, in which she had been obliged 
to leave the window wide open after their departure ! 

But another and a deeper sorrow awaited Marcelle that 
day. The idea had struck her of running directly to her 
parents to borrow the needed sum of them : in this way, 
when her husband should return at night, she would not 
have to fill him with despair, but could make him laugh by 
telling him of the scene of the morning. Already she saw 
herself describing the great battle, the ferocious assault 
made upon their household, the heroic way in which she 
had repulsed the attack. Her heart beat very fast as she 
entered the little residence in the Rue Legendre, that 
comfortable house in which she had grown up and where 
she looked henceforth to find only strangers, so different, 
so icy, did the atmosphere seem to her. As her parents 
were sitting down to the table, she had accepted an invita- 
tion to breakfast, to put them in better humor. Through- 
out the meal the conversation ran upon the rise in Uni- 
versal stock, the price of which had gone up twenty francs 
only the day before ; and she was astonished to find her 
mother more feverish, more greedy, than her father, she 
who, at the beginning, trembled at the very idea of specu- 
lation ; now, with the violence of a conquered woman, it 
was she who chided him for his timidity, furious after 
great strokes of luck. At one moment she was carried 
away, astounded, on hearing him talk of selling their 
seventy-five shares at this unhoped-for figure of two thou- 
sand five hundred and twenty francs, which would have 
given them a hundred and eighty-nine thousand francs, a 
pretty profit, more than a hundred thousand francs in ex- 
cess of the price at which they bought it. Sell ! when 
the Cote Financière promised the figure of three thousand 
francs ! Had he gone mad? For the Cote Financière was 
known for its old honesty; he himself often repeated that 
with this newspaper one could sleep soundly. Oh ! no, 
indeed, she would not let him sell ! She would sooner 
sell their house and buy it back again ! And Marcelle, 
silent, with heart compressed, at hearing these big figures 
passionately tossed about, was considering how she could 
venture to ask a loan of five hundred francs in this house 


MONEY. 


295 

invaded by gambling, in which she had seen rising little 
by little the flood of financial newspapers, which now sub- 
merged it in the intoxicating dream of their publicity. 
Finally, at dessert, she risked it : they needed five hun- 
dred francs ; they were going to be sold out ; her parents 
could not abandon them in this disaster. The father 
straightway lowered his head, with an embarrassed glance 
at his wife. But already the mother was refusing, with a 
firm voice. Five hundred francs ! Where did they ex- 
pect her to find them ? All their capital was invested in 
stock operations ; and besides, she went back to her old 
diatribes : when one had married a pauper, a man who 
wrote books, she must accept the consequences of her 
stupidity, and not try to fall back upon her relatives as a 
burden. No ! she had not a sou for the idlers who, with 
their pretended fine contempt for money, dreamed only 
of eating that of others. And she allowed her daughter 
to go away, and the latter had gone away in despair, her 
heart bleeding that she could no longer recognize her 
mother, she who used to be so reasonable and so kind. 

In the street Marcelle had walked along, in an uncon- 
scious fashion, looking at the ground as if hoping to find the 
money there. Then the sudden idea struck her of apply- 
ing to Uncle Chave ; and straightway she had presented 
herself at the discreet ground-floor in the Rue Nollet, in 
order not to miss him, before the opening of the Bourse. 
There were whisperings, laughs of little girls. However, 
the door opening, she had seen the Captain alone, smok- 
ing his pipe, and he was greatly distressed, seemingly 
furious against himself, crying out that he had never a 
hundred francs in advance, that he consumed every day 
his little profits at the Bourse, like the dirty pig that he 
was. Then, learning of the refusal of the Maugendres, 
he had thundered against them, wicked rascals that they 
were, of whom he now saw no more, since the rise of their 
four shares had made them crazy. Had not his sister 
treated him only the other week as a higgler, as if to turn 
to ridicule his prudent way of playing, because as a friend 
he advised her to sell ? She would get no pity from him 
if she should break her neck. 


M«NEY. 


2QÔ 

And Marcelle, again in the street, empty-handed, had 
been obliged to resign herself to go to the newspaper- 
office, to warn her husband of what had happened in the 
morning. It was absolutely necessary to pay Busch. 
Jordan, whose book had not yet been accepted by any 
publisher, had just started out on a hunt for money, 
through muddy Paris on this rainy day, without knowing 
where to knock, at friends’ houses or at the offices of the 
newspapers for which he wrote, in the hope of a chance 
meeting. Although he had begged her to go home again, 
she was so anxious that she had preferred to remain there, 
on this bench, waiting for him. 

After the departure of his daughter, Dejoie, seeing her 
alone, bought her a newspaper. 

“If Madame would like to read, to while away the 
time.” 

But she refused with a gesture ; and, as Saccard arrived, 
she assumed an air of bravery, and gayly explained that 
she had sent her husband to do a bothersome errand in the 
neighborhood, thus getting rid of it herself. Saccard, 
who had a feeling of friendship for the little household, 
as he called them, absolutely insisted that she should go 
into his office, where she could wait more comfortably. 
But she refused, saying that she was very well where she 
was. And he ceased to press the matter, in the surprise 
that he felt at suddenly finding himself face to face with 
the Baroness Sandorff, who was leaving Jantrou’s office. 
However, they both smiled, with an air of amiable under- 
standing, like people who exchange a simple bow, in order 
not to parade themselves. 

Jantrou, in their conversation, had just told the Baroness 
that he no longer dared to give her advice. His perplex- 
ity was increasing in view of the solidity of the Universal, 
in spite of the growing efforts of the bears : undoubtedly 
Gundermann would win eventually, but Saccard might 
last a long time, and perhaps there was much to be made 
yet by staying with him. He had decided to delay, to 
keep fair with both of them. The best way was to try to 
possess always the secrets of the one, by showing herself 
amiable, in such a way as to keep them to herself and 


MONEY. 


297 


profit by them, or else sell them to the other, as she might 
find most to her interest. All this without any dark con- 
spiracy, arranged by him in a jesting sort of way, while 
she promised him with a laugh to keep him posted in the 
matter. 

“ So she is continually thrusting herself upon you? It 
is your turn,” said Saccard, in his brutal way, on enter- 
ing Jantrou’s office. 

The latter feigned astonishment. 

“Of whom are you talking? ... Ah ! the Baroness! 
But, my dear master, she adores you. She told me so 
just now.” 

With the gesture of a man not to be deceived, the old 
corsair had stopped him. And he looked at him in his 
downfall of a low debauchee, thinking that, if she had 
yielded to her curiosity regarding Sabatani, she might be 
desirous also of knowing the vice of this ruin. 

“ Do not defend yourself, my dear fellow. When a 
woman gambles, she would give herself to the first mes- 
senger at the street corner who would carry an order for 
her.” 

Jantrou was very much wounded, but he contented 
himself with laughing, persisting in explaining the pres- 
ence in his office of the Baroness who had come, he said, 
about a matter of advertising. 

Saccard, however, with a shrug of the shoulders, had 
already put aside this question of a woman, of no interest 
to him. 

Standing, walking up and down, planting himself be- 
fore the window to watch the eternal falling of the gray 
rain, he exhaled his effeminate joy. Yes, the Universal 
had again gone up twenty francs the day before ! But 
how the devil was it that the sellers were so furiously 
persistent ? For it would have risen thirty francs but for 
a package of shares which had fallen upon the market at 
an early hour. He was ignorant of the fact that Mad- 
ame Caroline had again sold a thousand of her shares, 
struggling herself against the unreasonable rise, in obedi- 
ence to the order left by her brother. Certainly Saccard 
could not complain in view of the growing success, and 


MONEY. 


2ç$ 

yet he was agitated that day by an inward trembling, 
caused by secret fear and anger. He cried out that the 
dirty Jews had sworn to ruin him, and that this canaille 
of a Gundermann had just put himself at the head of a 
syndicate of bears to crush him. He had been told so at 
the Bourse ; there was talk of a sum of three hundred 
millions destined by the syndicate to bring about the 
fall. Ah ! the brigands ! But he did not repeat thus 
aloud the other current reports, growing more definite 
daily, disputing the solidity of the Universal, already 
alleging facts, symptoms of approaching difficulties, with- 
out having at all shaken as yet, it is true, the blind confi- 
dence of the public. 

But the door pushed open, and Huret entered, with his 
air of a simple man. 

“Ah! here you are, Judas,” said Saccard. 

Huret, on learning that Rougon had decided to aban- 
don his brother, had become reconciled with the minister ; 
for he was convinced that on the day when Saccard 
should have Rougon against him, the catastrophe would 
be inevitable. To obtain his pardon, he had re-entered 
the great man’s service, again doing his errands and risk- 
ing the gross words and kicks. 

“Judas!” he repeated, with the shrewd smile that 
sometimes lighted his peasant’s heavy face, “ at any rate 
a brave Judas, who comes to give his disinterested advice 
to the master whom he has betrayed.” 

But Saccard, as if unwilling to hear him, shouted, sim- 
ply to affirm his triumph : 

“Eh? Two thousand five hundred and twenty yes- 
terday, two thousand five hundred and twenty-five 
to-day.” 

“ I know, I have just sold.” 

At this blow the wrath which he was concealing under 
his jesting air broke forth : 

“What! you have sold? Well then, it is complete! 
You drop me for Rougon, and you place yourself with 
Gundermann ! ” 

The deputy looked at him in amazement. 

“ With Gundermann, why so? I place myself with my 


Money. 


299 

interests simply. I, you know, am not a daredevil. No, 
I haven’t so much stomach ; I prefer to realize directly, 
as soon as there is a pretty profit. And that perhaps is 
the reason why I have never lost.” 

He smiled again, like a prudent and cautious Norman, 
who, without fever, was housing his crop. 

“A director of the company!” continued Saccard 
violently. “ But to whom then shall one look for confi- 
dence? What must they think at seeing you sell thus, 
when the stock is rising? Indeed! it no longer aston- 
ishes me to hear them pretend that our prosperity is arti- 
ficial, and that the day of the downfall is at hand. These 
gentlemen sell, let us all sell. That means panic l ” 

Huret, silent, made a vague gesture. He was inwardly 
laughing, his own interests having been looked out for. 
He now had only to fulfil the mission with which Rougon 
had charged him, in the most proper way possible, without 
causing himself too much suffering. 

“ I told you, my dear fellow, that I had come to give 
you a piece of disinterested advice. Here it is. Be pru- 
dent ; your brother is furious ; he will squarely abandon 
you, if you allow yourself to be conquered.” 

Saccard curbed his anger. 

“ Did he send you to tell me that ? ” 

After some hesitation, the deputy thought it best to 
confess. 

“ Well, yes, he did. Oh l you do not suppose that the 
attacks of V Espérance have anything to do with his irrita- 
tion. He is above these wounds of pride. No ! but 
really, think how embarrassing your journal’s Catholic 
campaign must be to his present policy. Since these un- 
fortunate complications with Rome, he has the entire 
clergy on his back ; he has just been forced to have a 
bishop sentenced for abuse of his position. And to at- 
tack him you choose the very moment when he has great 
difficulty in saving himself from being swamped by the 
liberal evolution, born of the reforms of January 19, 
which he has consented to carry out, as they say, from 
the sole desire of prudently damming them up. See, you 
are his brother; do you think that that pleases him? ” 


300 


MONEY. 


“ Indeed ! ” answered Saccard, sneeringly, “ it is very 
wicked on my part. Here this poor brother who, in his 
rage to remain minister, governs in the name of the 
principles which he combated yesterday, lays the blame 
upon me, because he can no longer keep his balance 
between the Right, angry at having been betrayed, and 
the Third Estate, hungry for power. Only yesterday, to 
quiet the Catholics, he launched his famous: ‘Never!’ 
He swore that never would France allow Italy to take 
Rome from the Pope. To-day, in his terror of the lib- 
erals, he would like very much to give them a guarantee 
also ; he is pleased to think of ruining me to satisfy them. 
The other day Emile Ollivier gave him a violent shock in 
the Chamber.” 

“ Oh ! ” interrupted Huret, “ he still has the confidence 
of the Tuileries; the emperor has sent him a star of dia- 
monds.” 

But, with an energetic gesture, Saccard said he was not 
to be duped. 

“ The Universal is growing too powerful, that is what is 
the matter. A Catholic bank, which threatens to invade 
the world, to conquer it by money as it was formerly con- 
quered by faith, can that be tolerated ? All the free- 
thinkers, all the freemasons, ambitious to become minis- 
ters, shiver at the thought. Perhaps, too, they have some 
loans to put through with Gundermann. What would 
become of a government that did not allow itself to be 
eaten by these dirty Jews? And here my fool of a bro- 
ther, to retain power six months longer, is going to throw 
me as food to the dirty Jews, to the liberals, to the entire 
riff-raff, in the hope that he will be left in peace while 
they are devouring me. Well, go back and tell him that 
I laugh at him.” 

He straightened up his short figure to its full height ; 
at last his passion prevailed over his irony, in a trumpet- 
flourish of battle. 

“ Do you understand ? I laugh at him ! That is my 
answer ; I wish him to know it.” 

Huret slightly stooped. As soon as one got angry in 


MONEY. 


301 


business, he had nothing more to say. After all, he was 
only a messenger in this matter. 

“ All right, all right ! he shall be told. Your back will 
be broken. But that is your affair.” 

There was a silence. Jantrou, who had not said a word, 
pretending to be entirely absorbed in correcting some 
proofs, had raised his eyes to admire Saccard. How fine 
was the bandit in his passion ! These canailles of genius 
sometimes triumphed in this state of recklessness, when 
the intoxication of success carries them away. And Jan- 
trou, at this moment, was on his side, convinced of his 
fortune. 

“Ah! I forgot,” resumed Huret. “It seems that Del- 
cambre, the attorney-general, hates you. And, some- 
thing that you do not yet know, this morning the emperor 
appointed him minister of justice.” 

Suddenly Saccard stopped. With darkened face, he 
said at last : 

“ More of the same merchandise ! So they have made 
a minister of that fellow? What’s that to me ? ” 

“ Why! ” rejoined Huret, exaggerating his simple air, 
“ if any misfortunes should come to you, as happens to 
everybody in business, your brother does not wish you to 
rely on him to defend you against Delcambre.” 

“ But thunder of God ! ” screamed Saccard, “ don’t I 
tell you that I laugh at the whole gang, Rougon, and Del- 
cambre, and you in the bargain ? ” 

Fortunately, at that moment Daigremont entered. 
He never came up to the newspaper-office ; his appearance 
was a surprise to all, cutting short their violence. In his 
very correct fashion he shook hands all round, smiling 
with his caressing amiability of a man of the world. His 
wife was going to give a soirée , at which she would sing ; 
and he came simply to invite Jantrou in person, to secure 
a good article. But Saccard’s presence seemed to delight 
him. 

“ How goes it, my great man ? ” 

“ Say, you haven’t sold too ? ” asked the latter without 
answering. 


302 


MONEY. 


“ Sell ? Oh no ! not yet ! ” And his burst of laughter 
was very sincere ; he was really more solid than that. 

“ But one should never sell, in our situation ! ” cried 
Saccard. 

“Never! that is what I meant. We are all engaged 
together; you know that you can rely on me.” 

His eyelids had drooped ; he had just given an oblique 
glance, as he answered for the other directors, Sédille, 
Kolb, the Marquis de Bohain, as for himself. Their en- 
terprise was prospering so well that it was really a pleasure 
to be all in harmony, in the most extraordinary success 
that the Bourse had seen for fifty years. And he had a 
charming word for each ; he went away, repeating that he 
counted on all three of them for his soiree . Mounier, the 
tenor of the opera, would give his wife the cue. Oh ! a 
fine performance ! 

“ Then,” asked Huret, starting in his turn, “ that is all 
the answer you have to make? ” 

“ To be sure,” declared Saccard, with his dry voice. 

And, as an affectation, he did not go down with him as 
usual. Then, finding himself alone again with the direc- 
tor of the newspaper, he said : 

“ This means war, my brave fellow ! There is no oc- 
casion to spare anybody further ; jump on the whole gang ! 
Ah ! at last, then, I am going to be able to fight the bat- 
tle according to my own ideas ! ” 

“ All the same, it is steep! ” continued Jantrou, whose 
perplexities were beginning again. 

In the passage, on the bench, Marcelle was still wait- 
ing. It was hardly. four o’clock, and Dejoie had already 
lighted the lamps, so early had it grown dark, in the dull 
and obstinate pouring of the rain. Every time that he 
passed by her, he found some little remark to entertain 
her. Moreover, the goings and comings of the editors 
were growing more frequent, loud voices came from the 
adjoining room, the entire fever that rises as the making 
of a newspaper goes on. 

Marcelle, suddenly raising her eyes, saw Jordan in front 
of her. He was drenched, and wore a crushed air, with 
that trembling of the lips, that slightly crazy look of peo* 


MONEY. 


303 


pie who have lpng been running in pursuit of some hope 
without attaining it. She had understood. 

“You have found nothing?” she asked, turning pale. 

“ Nothing, my darling, nothing at all. Nowhere ; it is 
not possible.” 

And then she gave only a low lament, in which her 
whole heart bled. 

“ Oh ! my God ! ” 

Just then Saccard came out of Jantrou’s office, and was 
astonished to find her still there. 

“ What, Madame, your rover of a husband has only just 
returned ? I told you to wait in my office.” 

She looked at him fixedly ; a sudden thought had been 
awakened in her large distressed eyes. She did not even 
reflect ; she yielded to that courage which throws women 
forward in moments of passion. 

“ Monsieur Saccard, I have something to ask of you. 
If you are willing now that we should go into your 
office.”. . . 

“ Why, certainly, Madame.” 

Jordan, who feared that he understood, tried to hold 
her back. He stammered in her ear : “ No, no ! ” in the 
unhealthy anguish into which these questions of money 
always threw him. But she released herself, and he had 
to follow. 

“ Monsieur Saccard,” she began, as soon as the door was 
closed, “my husband has been vainly running about for 
the last two hours to find five hundred francs, and he does 
not dare to ask you for them. Then I ask you for them.” 

And, with spirit, with her comical air of a gay and res- 
olute little woman, she described the scene of the morn- 
ing, the brutal entrance of Busch, the invasion of her 
chamber by the three men, how she had succeeded in re- 
pelling the assault, the promise that she had made to pay 
that very day. Ah ! these money wounds for little peo- 
ple, these great sorrows made of shame and weakness, life 
continually in uncertainty over a few miserable five-franc 
pieces ! 

“ Busch ! ” repeated Saccard, “ that old sharper of a 
Busch has you in his clutches ! ” 


304 


MONEY. 


Then, with charming good-nature, turning to Jordan, 
who remained silent and pale, in his intolerable feeling ot 
awkwardness, he said : 

“ Well, I will advance you the five hundred francs. 
You ought to have asked me for them in the fiist place. 

He had seated himself at his table to sign a check, 
when he stopped to reflect. He remembered the lettei 
he had received, the visit he was to make, and which he 
had been postponing from day to day in his annoyance 
over the suspicious story that he scented. Why should 
he not go directly to the Rue Feydeau, taking advantage 
of the opportunity, having a pretext. 

« Listen, I know this rascal through and through. It 
is better that I should go to pay him in person, to see if 
I cannot get back your notes at half price.” 

Now Marcelle’s eyes shone with gratitude. 

“ Oh ! Monsieur Saccard, how good you are ! ” 

And, addressing her husband, she added : 

“ You see, you silly boy, that Monsieur has not eaten 

us ! . 

He leaped upon her neck, with an irresistible movement, 
and kissed her, for it was she whom he thanked for being 
more energetic and clever than himself, in these difficul- 
ties of life that paralyzed him. 

“ No ! no ! ” said Saccard, when the young man finally 
pressed his hand, “ the pleasure is mine ; it is very nice 
of both of you to love each other so much. Go home, 
and rest easy.” 

His carriage, which was waiting for him, took him in 
two minutes to the Rue Feydeau, through this muddy 
Paris, in the jostle of umbrellas and the splashing of 
puddles. But up-stairs he rang in vain at the old painted 
door, upon which a plate bore the words : Disputed Claims , 
in big letters: it did not open, there was no sound within. 
And he was about to go away, when, in his keen vexation, 
he shook it violently with his fist. Then a dragging step 
was heard, and Sigismond appeared. 

“ What ! it is you ! I thought that it was my brother, 
who had come up and had forgotten his key. I never 


MONEY. 


305 


answer the bell. Oh ! he will not be long ; you can 
wait for him, if you want to see him.” 

With the same painful and unsteady step, he went 
back, followed by the visitor, into the chamber which he 
occupied on the Place de la Bourse. It was still daylight 
at these heights, above the fog whose rain filled the 
depths of the streets. The room was freezingly bare, 
with its little iron bedstead, its table, and its two chairs, 
its few planks loaded with books, without any other 
furniture. In front of the chimney a little stove stood, 
forgotten, in which the badly-kept fire had just gone out. 

“ Sit down, Monsieur. My brother told me that he 
was only going out and right back again.” 

But Saccard refused the chair, and stood looking at 
him, struck by the inroad which the consumption had 
made upon this tall pale fellow, with the eyes of a child, 
eyes swimming in dream-land, having a singular appearance 
under the energetic obstinacy of his forehead. Between 
his long locks of hair, his face had become extraordinarily 
hollow, as if elongated and drawn toward the grave. 

“ You have been suffering?” he asked, not knowing 
what else to say. 

Sigismond made a gesture of complete indifference. 

“ Oh ! as usual. This last week has not been a good 
one, on account of the miserable weather. But I get on 
very well just the same. I sleep no more ; so I can work : 
and I have a little fever, which keeps me warm. Oh ! 
there is so much to be done! ” 

He had sat down again at his table, upon which a book, 
in the German language, lay wide open. And he con- 
tinued : 

“ I ask your pardon for sitting down ; I sat up all night 
to read this book which I received yesterday. A work, 
yes ! ten years of the life of my master, Karl Marx, the 
treatise on capital which he promised us so long ago. 
Here is our Bible, now, here it is ! ” 

Curiously, Saccard cast a glance at the book ; but the 
sight of the Goth!; characters discouraged him at once. 

“ I will wait until it is translated,” he said with a laugh. 

The young man, with a shake of his head, seemed to 


30 6 


MONEY. 


say that, even when translated, it would scarcely be 
penetrated save by the few initiated. It was not a book 
of propaganda. But what power of logic, what a victori- 
ous abundance of proofs, in the inevitable destruction of 
our existing society, based upon the capitalistic system . 
The ground was cleared, they could rebuild. 

“ Then this is the sweep of the broom?” asked Sac- 
card, still jesting. T 

“In theory, yes,” answered Sigismond. “All that 1 
one day explained to you, the whole progress of evolu- 
tion, is in these pages. It only remains to carry it out. 
But you are blind if you do not see the considerable 
steps which the idea is taking with every hour. Thus 
you, who, with your Universal, have stirred up and cen- 
tralized hundreds of millions in three years, really seem 
not to suspect that you are leading us straight to col- 
lectivism. I have followed your enterprise with passion, 
yes ! from this chamber, so quiet and out-of-the-way, I 
have studied its development day by day, and I know it 
as well as you do ; and I say that you are giving us a 
famous lesson, for the collectivist State will only have 
to do what you are doing, expropriate you by wholesale, 
after you have expropriated the smaller capitalists in 
detail, in order to realize the ambition of your huge 
dream, which is, is it not? to absorb all the capital in 
the world, to be the single bank, the general warehouse 
of the public wealth. Oh ! I admire you very much, I 
would let you go on if I were master, because you are 
beginning our work, as a forerunner of genius.” 

And he smiled, with his pale smile of an invalid, as he 
noticed the attention of his questioner, who was very 
much surprised to find him so familiar with the affairs of 
the day, and also very much flattered by his intelligent 
praise. 

“ Only,” he continued, “ that fine morning when we 
shall expropriate you in the name of the nation, substi- 
tuting for your private interests the interests of all, mak- 
ing of your grand machine for sucking the blood of others 
the very regulator of social wealth, we shall begin by 
abolishing this.” 


MONEY. 


30 ; 


And he held in the air, between two fingers, as the 
designated victim, a sou which he had found among the 
papers on his table. s 

nessT° nC ^ ' Cr ^ ec * Jaccard, “abolish money! what mad- 

' We shall abolish coined money. Remember that 
metallic money has no place, no raison d'être , in the col- 
lectivist State. For purposes of payment, we shall re- 
place it with our labor notes ; and, if you consider it as a 
measure of value, we have another which completely 
takes its place, which we obtain by determining the aver- 
age day s work in our work-shops. It must be destroyed 
this money which masks and favors the exploitation of the 
laborer, which permits him to be robbed by reducing his 
wages to the smallest sum which he must have to keep 
him from dying of hunger. Is it not frightful, this pos- 
session of money which accumulates private fortunes 
which obstructs fruitful circulation, and makes scandalous 
royalties, sovereign mistresses, of the financial market 
and of social production? It is the source of all our 
crises, all our anarchy. Money must be killed, killed ! ” 
But Saccard became angry. No more silver* no more 
gold, no more of those shining stars which had lighted 
his life ! Always had wealth materialized itself to him in 
this dazzle of new coin, raining like a Spring shower, 
through the sun’s rays, falling in hail upon the ground’ 
covering it with heaps of silver, heaps of gold, which one 
stirred with a shovel to derive pleasure from their splendor 
and their music. And they would abolish this gayety 
this motive of battle and of life ! 

“ It: is nonsense ! Oh ! yes, it is nonsense ! Never, do 
you understand?” 

“ Why never ? Why nonsense ? In the economy of 
the family do we use money? You see only common 
effort and exchange. Then of what use will money be 
when society shall be but one large family, governing it- 
self? ” 

“ I tell you it is madness! Destroy money! Why, 
money is life itself ! Therç would be nothing left, noth- 
ing! ” 


MONEY. 


308 

He walked'up and down, beside himself. And in this 
fit of passion, as he passed by the window, he assured 
himself by a glance that the Bourse was still there, lor 
perhaps this terrible fellow had melted it also away with 
a breath. Yes, it was still there, but very vague in 
the depths of the falling night, as if melting under the 
shroud of rain, a pale phantom of a Bourse on the point 
of vanishing into gray mist. . . ... 

“ However, it is stupid to discuss it. It is impossible. 
Abolish then money, I should like to see you do it.” 

“Bah!” murmured Sigismond, “everything changes 
and disappears. Thus we have already seen the form of 
wealth change once, when the value of land declined, 
when real estate, the fields and the forests-, fell before 
personal, industrial fortune, bonds and stocks ; and to-day 
we are witnessing an early decay of the latter, in a sort 
of rapid depreciation, for it is certain that the rate is going 
down, the normal five cent, is no longer to be had. The 
value of money is falling then ; why should not money 
disappear, why should not a new form of wealth govern 
social relations? It is this wealth of to-morrow that our 
labor notes will bring.” 

He had become absorbed in the contemplation of the 
sou, ‘as if he dreamed that he held in his hand the last 
sou of the past ages, a wandering sou that had outlived 
the old dead society. How many joys and how many 
tears had worn away the humble metal ! And it had 
fallen in the sadness of eternal human desire. 

“ Yes,” he continued, gently, “ you are right ; we shall 
not see these things. It takes years, years. Can we 
even know whether the love of others will ever have in 
itself sufficient vigor to replace egoism in the social or- 
ganization ? Yet I have hoped for a nearer triumph ; I 
should so much have liked to witness this dawn of jus- 
tice ! ” 

For a moment the bitterness of his approaching end 
broke his voice. He who, in his denial of death, treated it 
as if it were not, made a gesture, as if to put it away. But 
already he became resigned. 

“ l have done my task ; I shall leave my notes, in case 


MONEY. 


3Ô0 

Hpj" have time to complete the reconstruction of 
which I have dreamed. The society of to-morrow must 
be the ripe fruit of civilization, for, if we do not keep the 
good side of emulation and control, everything collapses. 
Ah . that society, how clearly I see it at this hour 
created at last, complete, as I have succeeded, after so 
many nights, in placing it upon its feet ! Everything is 
foreseen, everything is solved, at last sovereign justice 
absolute happiness. There it is, on paper, mathematical* 
definitive. 

And with his long, emaciated hands he tapped upon 
the papers on his table, and he became exalted, in this 
dream of billions reconquered, divided equitably among 
all, in this joy and this health which he restored with a 
stroke of his pen to suffering humanity, he who ate no 
more, who slept no more, who was finishing dying with- 
out wants, amid the nudity of his chamber. 

But a harsh voice made Saccard tremble. 

“ What ! it is you ! What are you doing here? ” 

It was Busch, who had come back, and who cast at his 
visitor the oblique glance of a jealous lover, in his con- 
tinual fear lest his brother should be set off into a fit of 
coughing, from being made to talk too much. However, 
he did not wait for the reply, but scolded in a maternal 
fashion, as if in despair. 

“ What ! you have let your fire go out again ! Now I 
ask you if that is reasonable, in such damp weather ! ” 
Already, bending his knees, in spite of the weight of 
his huge body, he was breaking up kindling wood, with 
which he lighted the fire again. Then he went in search 
of a broom, swept up the litter, and attended to the 
medicine which the patient had to take every two hours. 
And he became tranquil only when he had induced the 
invalid to lie down on the bed, to rest. 

“ Monsieur Saccard, if you will step into my office.” 
Madame Méchain was there, sitting in the only chair. 
She and Busch had just made an important visit in the 
neighborhood, with the complete success of which they 
were delighted. At last, after a waiting that had almost 
filled them with despair, they had happily set in motion 


3io 


MONEŸ. 


one of the affairs which they had most at heart. For 
three years the Méchain had tramped the pavements in 
search of Léonie Cron, that seduced girl for whom the 
Count de Beauvilliers had signed an acknowledgment of 
ten thousand francs, payable on the day when she should 
come of age. Vainly had the Méchain applied to her 
cousin Fayeux, the dividend-collector at Vendôme, who 
had bought this acknowledgment for Busch, in a lot of old 
claims, belonging to the estate of one Charpier, a grain mer- 
chant and occasional usurer: Fayeux knew nothing, but 
simply wrote that the girl Léonie Cron must be in the ser- 
vice of a sheriff’s officer in Paris, that she had left Ven- 
dôme more than ten years before and had never returned, 
and that he had been unable to question a single one of 
her relatives, as they were all dead. The Méchain had 
discovered the sheriff’s officer, and had even succeeded in 
tracing Léonie to a butcher’s house, then to a gallant 
lady’s, and then to a dentist’s ; but, starting from the den- 
tist, the thread broke abruptly, the scent was interrupted, 
a needle in a haystack, a girl fallen and lost in the mud 
of immense Paris. In vain had she run to the intelligence 
offices, visited the lodging-houses in the lower quarters, 
ransacked the haunts of base debauchery, always on the 
watch, turning her head and questioning as soon as the 
name Léonie struck her ears. And this girl, in search of 
whom she had gone so far, she had that very day, by chance, 
discovered in the Rue Feydeau itself, in the neighboring 
public house, where she had gone to hunt up an old 
tenant of the City of Naples, who owed her three francs. 
A stroke of genius had led her to recognize her under the 
distinguished name of Léonide, at the moment when 
Madame was calling her to the parlor in a piercing voice. 
Busch, being notified, had returned with her directly to 
the house, to negotiate ; and this stout girl, with hard, 
black hair falling to her eye-brows, and a flat and flabby 
face, had at first surprised him ; then he had accounted to 
himself for her special charm, especially before her ten 
years of prostitution, delighted, however, that she had 
fallen so low and become so abominable. He had 
offered her a thousand francs if she would abandon to 


MONEY. 


3II 

him her rights in the acknowledgment. She was stupe- 
fied ; she had accepted the bargain with a childish joy. 
At last, then, they were going to be able to hunt down 
the Countess de Beauvilliers; they had the weapon for 
which they had been searching, almost without hope, in 
this degree of ugliness and shame! 

“ 1 was expecting you, Monsieur Saccard. We have to 
talk. You received my letter, did you not?” 

In the little room, full of papers, already dark, which a 
small lamp lighted smokily, the Méchain, motionless and 
silent, did not stir from the only chair. And, left stand- 
ing, not wishing to seem to have come in answer to a 
threat, Saccard at once entered upon the Jordan matter, 
m a stern and contemptuous voice. 

“ Pardon me, I came up to settle a debt of one of my 
editors, little Jordan, a very charming fellow, whom you 
pursue with red-hot balls, with a ferocity which is really 
revolting. This very morning, it seems, you behaved 
toward his wife in a way that would make a gallant man 
blush.” 

Astonished at being attacked in this way when he was 
getting ready to take the offensive, Busch lost his foot- 
ing, forgot the other matter, and became irritated over 
this. 

“The Jordans, you come in behalf of the Jordans? 
There is no wife, no gallant man, in business. When 
one owes, one pays ; I know no rule but that. Wretches 
who have been playing with me for years, and from 
whom I have had a devil of a time to get four hundred 
francs, sou by sou! Ah! thunder of God, yes! I will 
sell them out, I will throw them into the street to-morrow 
morning, if I do not have to-night upon my desk the 
three hundred and thirty francs and fifteen centimes 
which they still owe me.” 

And Saccard, as a matter of tactics, and to get him 
angry, having said that he had already been paid forty 
times over for this claim, which surely had not cost him 
ten francs, he really choked with anger. 

“There you go again! You all have nothing to say 
but that. And what about the costs? This debt of 


312 


MONEY. 


three hundred francs, which has risen to more than 
seven hundred. But that does not concern me. They 
do not pay me, I prosecute. So much the worse if jus- 
tice is expensive ; it is their fault ! Then, when I have 
bought a claim for ten francs, I ought to be paid ten 
francs, and that would end the matter ! But my risks, 
and my running about, and my head-work, yes! my 
intelligence? Stay! in this Jordan matter, you can con- 
sult Madame, who is here. She has been attending to it. 
Ah ! the steps and the proceedings which she has been 
to ; she has worn out shoe-leather in ascending the stairs 
of all the newspaper-offices, where they showed her the 
door like a beggar, without ever giving her the address. 
Why, we have been nursing this affair for months, we 
have dreamed about it, we have been working on it as 
one of our master-pieces ; it has cost me a mad sum, even 
at ten sous an hour.” 

He became excited, and with a sweeping gesture 
pointed to the papers that filled the room. 

“ I have here more than twenty millions of claims, of 
all ages, upon people in all stations, the petty and the 
colossal. Do you want them for a million ? I give them 
to you. When one thinks that there are debtors whom 
I have been hunting for a quarter of a century! To ob- 
tain from them a few miserable hundred francs, and 
sometimes even less, I wait in patience for years until 
they are successful or inherit wealth. The others, the 
unknown and most numerous, sleep there. Look ! in 
that corner, all that enormous heap. That is annihila- 
tion, or rather it is raw material, from which I must get 
life, I mean my life, God knows after what complication 
of searches and annoyances ! And when I catch one at 
last, in a solvent condition, you expect me not to bleed 
him ? Oh ! no, you would think me too stupid ; you 
would not be so stupid yourself ! ” 

Without waiting to discuss further, Saccard took out 
his pocket-book. 

“ I am going to give you two hundred francs, and you 
are going to give me back the Jordan papers, with a re- 
ceipt in full.” 


MONEY. 


SIB 


Busch started in exasperation. 

“ Two hundred francs ! Never in my life ! It is three 
hundred and thirty francs and fifteen centimes. I want 
the centimes.” 

But with his even voice, with the tranquil assurance of 
a man who knows the power of money, exhibited and 
spread out, Saccard two or three times repeated : 

“ I am going to give you two hundred francs.” 

And the Jew, convinced at the bottom that it was rea- 
sonable to compromise, finally consented, with a cry of 
rage and with tears in his eyes. 

“ I am too weak. What a dirty trade ! Upon my 
word, they strip me, they rob me. Go on, while you are 
about it, do not be embarrassed, take others, yes ! fumble 
in the heap, for your two hundred francs ! ” 

Then, when Busch had signed the receipt and written 
a note to the sheriff’s .officer, for the papers were no 
longer in his office, he stood panting a moment before 
his desk, so shaken that he would have allowed Saccard 
to go but for the Méchain, who had not made a gesture 
or spoken a word. 

“ And the affair ? ” said she. 

He suddenly remembered ; he was going to take his 
revenge. But all that he had prepared, his story, his 
questions, the skillfully-arranged interview, was swept 
away with a stroke in his haste to arrive at the fact. 

“ The affair, it is true ! I wrote to you, Monsieur Sac- 
card. We have now an old account to settle together.” 

He had stretched out his hand to take down the Sicar- 
dot papers, which he opened in front of him. 

‘‘ In 1852 you went to a furnished hotel in the Rue de 
la Harpe ; there you signed twelve notes of fifty francs 
each in favor of a young girl of sixteen, Octavie Chavaille, 
whom you violated one evening, on the stairway. These 
notes, here they are. You have not paid a single one of 
them, for you went away, without leaving any address, 
before the first one matured. And the worst of it is that 
they are signed with a false name, Sicardot, the name of 
your first wife.” 

Very pale, Saccard listened, and looked at him. Suffer- 


MONEY. 


314 

in g from an inexpressible shock, his whole past rose be- 
fore him ; he felt a sinking sensation, as if an enormous 
and confused mass were falling upon him. In this fear of 
the first minute he lost his head, and stammered : 

“ How do you know ? Where did you get these ? ” 

Then, with his trembling hands, he hastened to take 
out his pocket-book again, with no thought but that of 
paying and thus regaining possession of these annoying 
papers. 

“ There are no costs, are there? It is six hundred 
francs. Oh ! there is much that might be said, but I pre- 
fer to pay, without discussion.” 

And he handed out six bank-notes. 

“ Directly ! ” cried Busch, • pushing back the money. 
“ I have not finished. Madame, whom you see there, is 
Octavie’s cousin, and these papers are hers ; it is in her 
name that I seek payment. This poor Octavie remained 
a cripple inconsequence of your violence. She had many 
misfortunes, and she died in frightful poverty, at the 
house of Madame, who took her in. If Madame wished, 
she could tell you things” . . . 

“Terrible things!” emphasized the Méchain, in her 
piping voice, breaking her silence. 

Saccard, frightened, turned toward her, having forgotten 
her, sitting there in a heap, like a half-collapsed goat’s 
skin. She had always disturbed him, with her doubtful 
commerce of a bird of prey in unclassed values ; and now 
he found her again, mixed up with this disagreeable story. 

“ Undoubtedly, the poor girl, it is very sad,” he mur- 
mured. “ But, if she is dead, I really do not see . . . 
Here at any rate are the six hundred francs.” 

A second time Busch refused to take the sum. 

“ Pardon me, you do not know all yet ; she had a child. 
Yes, a child who is in his fourteenth year, a child who so 
resembles you that you cannot deny him.” 

Stunned, Saccard repeated several times : 

“ A child, a child” . . . 

Then, with a sudden gesture, replacing the six bank- 
notes in his pocket-book, recovering his self-possession 
and becoming very good-natured, he continued : 


MONEY. 


3î$ 

“ Wh a t, then ! are you laughing at me? If there is a 
child, I do not give you a sou. The little one is his 
mother s heir; he shall have this, and whatever he wants in 
the bargain.. A child ! Why, that is very nice, very nat- 
ural ; there is no harm in having a child. On the con- 
tiary, it gives me much pleasure, it rejuvenates me, upon 
my word ! Where is he, that I may go to see him ? 
Why didn’t you bring him to me immediately?” 

Stupefied in his turn, Busch remembered his long hesi- 
tation and the infinite pains that Madame Caroline had 
been to in order to conceal Victor’s existence from his 
father. And, baffled, he entered into the most violent 
and complicated explanations, revealing everything at 
once, the six thousand francs loaned and the costs of sup- 
port which the Méchain claimed, the two thousand francs 
paid as an instalment by Madame Caroline, Victor’s 
frightful instincts, his entrance into the Work of Labor. 
And, on his side, Saccard started at hearing each new de- 
tail. What, six thousand francs ! How was he to know, 
on the other hand, that they had not stripped the little 
fellow? An instalment of two thousand francs ! They had 
had the audacity to extort two thousand francs from a 
lady, one of his friends ! Why, it was a robbery, an abuse 
of confidence ! This little fellow, indeed, they had 
brought him up badly, and now they expected him to 
pay those who were responsible for this evil education ! 
Did they take him, then, for a fool ? 

“ Not a sou ! ” he cried, “ do you hear ? Do not count 
on getting a sou out of my pocket ! ” 

Busch, pale, was now standing in front of his table. 

“ We shall see. I will drag you into court.” 

“ Oh ! don’t talk nonsense. You know very well that 
the courts do not occupy themselves with these matters. 
And, if you hope to blackmail me, that is still more stu- 
pid, because I laugh at the whole affair. A child ! Why, 

I tell ÿou that that flatters me ! ” 

And, as the Méchain filled up the door-way, he had to 
jostle her and stride over her to get out. She was suffo- 
cated, and she hurled after him, down the stairs, in her 
shrill voice : 


3ié 


MonëV. 


“ Canaille! Heartless wretch ! ” 

“You shall hear from us,” screamed Busch, hastily clos- 
ing the door. 

Saccard was in such a state of excitement that he or- 
dered his coachman to return at once to the Rue Saint- 
Lazare. He was in a hurry to see Madame Caroline ; he 
approached her without embarrassment, and promptly 
scolded her for having given the two thousand francs. 

“ Why, my dear friend, one should never drop money 
like that. Why the devil did you act without consulting 
me ? ” 

She, astonished that he knew the story at last, remained' 
silent. It was really Busch’s handwriting that she had 
recognized, and now she had nothing more to hide, since 
another had just relieved her of the care of the secret. 
Nevertheless she still hesitated, in confusion for this man 
who questioned her so much at his ease. 

“ I wanted to save you a chagrin. This poor child was 
in such degradation ! I should have told you all long 
ago, but for a feeling”. . . 

“What feeling? I confess that I do not understand 
you.” 

She did not try to explain herself, to further excuse 
herself, invaded with a feeling of sadness, of weariness of 
everything, she who was so courageous in living ; while 
he continued to exclaim, delighted, really rejuvenated : 

“ This poor little fellow ! I shall be very fond of him, 
I assure you. You did quite right to put him in the 
Work of Labor, to clean him up a little. But we will take 
him away from there, we will give him teachers. To- 
morrow I will go to see him, yes ! to-morrow, if I am not 
too busy.” 

The next day there was a meeting of the board, and 
two days passed, and then a week, in which Saccard was 
unable to find a minute. He often spoke of the child, 
postponing his visit, always yielding to the overflowing 
river that bore him on. 

In the early days of December the figure of two thou- 
sand seven hundred francs was reached, amid the extra- 
ordinary fever which continued to upset the Bourse with 


MONEY. 


317 

its unhealthy paroxysms. The worst was that the alarm- 
ing reports had increased, and that the rise was going on 
madly, in a growing, intolerable feeling of uneasiness : 
from that time the inevitable catastrophe was predicted 
aloud, and yet the stock went on rising, rising incessantly, 
by the obstinate force of one of those prodigious infatua- 
tions which refuse to acknowlege evidence. Saccard lived 
only in the exaggerated fiction of his triumph, surrounded 
as with a blaze of glory by this shower of gold which he 
caused to rain upon Paris, delicate enough nevertheless to 
feel the sensation of the undermined and cracking soil, 
which threatened to sink under him. Accordingly, al- 
though lie remained victorious after every liquidation, his 
wrath did not abate against the bears, whose losses al- 
ready must be frightful. What then made these dirty 
Jews so furious ? Would they not end by vanquishing 
him ? And he was especially exasperated by the fact 
that he scented, by the side of Gundermann and follow- 
ing his play, other sellers, soldiers of the Universal, trai- 
tors who passed over to the enemy, shaken in their faith, 
in a hurry to realize. 

# One day, when Saccard was thus giving expression to 
his discontent to Madame Caroline, the latter thought it 
her duty to tell him all at last. 

“ You know, my friend, that I have sold. I have just 
sold our last thousand shares at two thousand seven hun- 
dred.” 

He sat annihilated, as if confronted with the blackest 
treasons. 

“You have sold, you ! you, my God ! ” 

She had taken his hands and was pressing them, really 
pained, reminding him that she and her brother had warned 
him. The latter, who was still at Rome, wrote letters 
full of mortal anxiety about this exaggerated rise, which 
he could not explain, and which must be stopped at any 
cost, under the penalty of a tumble into the gulf. Only 
the day before she had received one, giving her a formal 
order to sell. And she had sold. 

“You, you!” repeated Saccard. “It was you who 


3i8 


MONEY. 


were fighting me, you whom I felt in the shadow ! It is 
your stock that I have been obliged to buy ! ” 

He did not fly into a passion, as he usually did, and she 
suffered the more from his despondency ; she would have 
liked to reason with him, induce him to abandon this 
merciless struggle, which nothing but a massacre could 
terminate. 

“ My friend, listen to me. Reflect that our three thou- 
sand shares have brought us more than seven millions 
and a half. Is not that an unhoped-for, an extravagant 
profit ? All this money frightens me, I cannot believe 
that it belongs to me. But besides, it is not our personal 
interest that is in question. Think of the interests of all 
those who have entrusted their fortune in your hands, a 
frightful total of millions which you risk in the game. 
Why sustain this senseless rise, why stimulate it further ? 
I hear on every hand that catastrophe lies inevitably at 
the end. You cannot go on rising always; there is no 
shame in allowing the shares to fall back to their real 
value, and then the house will be solid ; that means sal- 
vation.” 

But he had risen violently to his feet. 

“ I wish to reach the figure of three thousand. I have 
bought, and I will buy again, if it kills me. Yes! may I 
fall and all fall with me, if I do not reach and maintain 
the figure of three thousand ! ” 

After the liquidation of December 15, the price rose to 
two thousand eight hundred, to two thousand nine hun- 
dred. And on the twenty-first the quotation of three 
thousand and twenty francs was proclaimed at the Bourse, 
amid the agitation of an insane multitude. There was no 
longer any truth or logic in it ; the idea of value was 
perverted, to the point of losing all real significance. The 
report was current that Gundermann, contrary to his 
prudent habits, had involved himself in frightful r*isks ; for 
months he had been nursing the fall ; his losses had 
increased with every fortnight, in proportion to the rise, 
by enormous leaps ; and it was beginning to be whispered 
that his back might be broken after all. All brains were 
topsy turvy, prodigies were expected. 


MONEY. 


319 


And at this supreme moment, when Saccard, at the 
summit, felt the earth trembling, in the unconfessed 
anguish of the fall, he was king. When his carriage 
reached the Rue de Londres, in front of the triumphal 
palace of the Universal, a valet quickly came out and 
spread a carpet, which rolled from the steps of the vesti- 
bule across the sidewalk to the gutter ; and then Saccard 
condescended to leave his carriage, and made his entrance, 
like a sovereign, saved from treading on the common 
pavement of the streets. 


At this closing of the year, on the day of the December 
liquidation, the great hall of the Bourse was full at half 
past twelve, in an extraordinary agitation of voices and 
gestures. For some weeks, moreover, the effervescence 
had been going on, and it ended in this last day of 
struggle, a feverish tumult in which the decisive battle 
which was about to begin was already grumbling. ^ Out- 
side it was freezing terribly ; but a clear winter’s sun 
entered, with a slanting ray, through the high windows, 
enlivening all one side of the bare hall, with its severe 
pillars and its sad arched roof, made colder yet by alle- 
gorical cameos, While registers, the whole length of the 
arcade, poured in their warm breath, amid the cold current 
from the grated doors, continually swinging. 

The bear Moser, more anxious and sallow than usual, 
ran against the bull Pillerault, arrogantly planted on his 
heron’s long legs. 

“ You know what they say.” 

But he had to raise his voice to make himself heard in 
the growing hum of conversation, a regular monotonous 
rolling, like the roar of overflowing waters, running end- 
lessly. 

“ They say that we shall have war in April. It cannot 
end otherwise, with these formidable armaments. Ger- 
many will not leave us time to carry out the new military 
law which the Chamber is going to vote. And besides, 
Bismarck” . . . 

Pillerault burst out laughing. 

“ Oh ! leave me at peace with your Bismarck ! I who 
am speaking to you talked five minutes with him this 
summer, when he was here. He seems like a very good 


MONEY. 


321 


fellow. If you are not satisfied after the crushing success 
of the Exposition, what do you expect ? Why, my dear 
fellow, Europe is ours.” 

Moser shook his head in despair. And, in phrases cut 
off at every second by the jostling of the crowd, he con- 
tinued to express his fears. The state of the market was 
too prosperous, a plethoric prosperity which had no value, 
any more than the surplus fat of people who are too 
stout. Thanks to the Exposition, too many enterprises 
had been pushed forward, the market was too much 
obstructed, they were arriving at the pure madness of 
gambling. Was it not crazy, for instance, the Universal 
at three thousand and thirty ? 

“ Ah ! there you are again ! ” cried Pillerault. 

And, drawing nearer, and emphasizing every syllable, 
he continued : 

“ My dear fellow, it will close this afternoon at three 
thousand and sixty. Mark my word, you will all be over- 
thrown.” 

The bear, easily impressionable moreover, gave a slight 
whistle of defiance. And he looked into the air, to indi- 
cate his sham tranquillity of soul, examining for a moment 
the heads of a few women who were leaning over the 
telegraphers’ gallery above, astonished at the sight of this 
hall which they could not enter. Escutcheons bore the 
names of cities ; capitals and cornices prolonged a pale 
perspective, which infiltrations had stained yellow. 

“ What ! it is you ! ” resumed Moser, as he lowered 
his head and recognized Salmon, who was smiling before 
him, with his eternal and profound smile. 

Then, disturbed, seeing in this smile an approval of 
Pillerault’s predictions, he went on : 

« Come, if you know anything, tell it. My reasoning 
is simple. I am with Gundermann, because Gundermann, 
you know, is Gundermann. He always comes out all 
right.” 

« But,” said Pillerault, with a sneer, “how do you know 
that Gundermann is a bear? ” 

Suddenly Moser’s eyes grew large and round in be- 
wilderment. For months it had been the gossip at the 


322 


MONEY. 


Bourse that Gundermann was watching Saccard, that he 
was preparing a fall for the Universal, waiting to strang e 
it, at the end of some month, with a sudden effort, crush- 
ing the market with the weight of his millions; and, if 
this day promised to be so warm, in the fever which all 
felt, it was because all believed and repeated that on this 
day the battle at last was to be one of those merciless 
battles in which one of the two armies is left prostrate on 
the earth, destroyed. But can one ever be certain, in this 
world of falsehood and strategy? The surest things, the 
things most betokened in advance, became, at the slight- 
est breath, subjects of doubt, full of anguish. 

“ You deny the evidence,” murmured Moser. “ To be 
sure, I have not seen the orders, and one can assert noth- 
ing positively. Eh? Salmon, what do you say? Surely 
Gundermann cannot let go now ! ’ 

And he knew no longer what to believe, in view of the 
silent smile of Salmon, which seemed to him to grow 
thinner and become of extreme delicacy. 

“Ah ! ” he continued, designating with his chin a stout 
man who was passing, “ if he would only speak, I should 
have no hesitation. He sees clearly.” 

It was the celebrated Amadieu, who still lived upon his 
success in the affair of the Selsis mining-stock, the shaies 
purchased at fifteen francs, in a fit of imbecile obstinacy, 
and sold again later at a profit of fifteen millions, without 
foresight or calculation on his part, by pure luck. He was 
venerated for his great financial capacity, a whole court 
followed him, trying to catch his slightest words, and play- 
ing in the direction which they seemed to indicate. 

“ Bah ! ” shouted Pillerault, given over to his favorite 
theory of recklessness, “ the best way, after all, is to fol- 
low one’s idea, come what may. There is nothing but 
luck. One has Hick, or one has not. What, then? he 
should not reflect. Every time that I have reflected, I 
have been nearly ruined. Look you ! as long as I shall 
see that gentleman yonder at his post, with his spirited 
air as if he meant to eat everything, I shall buy.” 

With a gesture, he had pointed to Saccard, who had 
just arrived and stationed himself in his usual place, 


MONEY. 


323 


against the pillar of the first arcade at the left. Like all 
the important heads of houses, he had thus a well-known 
place, where clerks and customers were certain to find 
him, when the Bourse was open. Gundermann alone 
affected never to set foot in the great hall ; he did not 
even send an official representative ; but one could feel 
there an army of his own, he reigned as an absent and 
sovereign master, by the innumerable legion of remisiers, 
brokers who brought his orders, to say nothing of his 
credits, so numerous that every man present was perhaps 
the. mysterious soldier of Gundermann. And it was 
against this imperceptible and everywhere active army 
that Saccard struggled, in person, with uncovered brow. 
Behind him; in the angle of the pillar, there was a bench, 
but he never sat down, standing during the two hours of 
the market, as if scornful of fatigue. Sometimes, in mo- 
ments of abandonment, he simply rested his elbow against 
the stone, which, at a point corresponding to a man’s 
height, had become darkened and polished by these re- 
peated contacts; and, in the dull nudity of the monu- 
ment, this characteristic detail was to be seen everywhere, 
this band of shining dirt, against the doors, against the 
walls, in the stairways, in the hall, an unclean basement, 
the accumulated sweat of generations of gamblers and 
thieves. Very elegant, very correct, like all the stock- 
jobbers, with his fine clothes and his dazzling linen, Sac- 
card wore the amiable and rested expression of a man 
without anxieties, amid these walls bordered with black. 

“ You know,” said Moser, stifling his voice, “that they 
charge him with sustaining the rise by considerable pur- 
chases. If the Universal is speculating in its own stock, 
it is all up with it.” 

But Pillerault protested. 

“ More gossip. Can any one tell exactly who sells and 
who buys? He is here for the customers of his house, 
which is very natural. And he is here also on his own 
account, for he must speculate.” 

Moser, moreover, did not insist. No one would have 
dared to assert yet at the Bourse the terrible campaign 
carried on by Saccard, these purchases which he made on 


MONEY. 


324 

behalf of the society, under cover of a man of straw, Sa- 
batani, Jantrou, still others, and especially the clerks in 
-his employ. Only a rumor was current, whispered in the 
fear, contradicted, always springing up again, although 
without possible proof. At first he had only sustained 
the price prudently, selling again as soon as he could, in 
order not to fix the capital and fill up the vaults with 
shares. But now he was carried away by the struggle, 
and he had foreseen that on this day it would be neces- 
sary to make exaggerated purchases, if he wished to re- 
main master of the battle-field. His orders were given ; 
he affected his smiling calmness of ordinary days, in spite 
of his uncertainty as to the final result and the trouble 
which he felt at thus entering farther and farther upon a 
path which he knew to be frightfully dangerous.. 

Suddenly Moser, who had gone to prowl behind the 
back of the celebrated Amadieu, in conference with a 
little man with a hang dog look, came back very much 
excited, stammering : . . « ^ 

“ J have heard, heard with my own ears. He said that 
Gunderman.n’s orders to sell surpassed ten millions. Oh ! 

I sell, I sell, I would sell even my shirt ! ” 

“Ten millions, the devil!” murmured Pillerault, in a 
somewhat shaky voice. “ Then it is really war to the 
knife.” 

And in the rolling clamor which increased, swollen by all 
the private conversations, there was nothing to be heard 
but this ferocious duel between Gundermann and Sac- 
card. The words were not to be distinguished, but the 
sound was made up of it ; it was that alone that was 
growling so loud, the calm and logical obstinacy of the 
one in selling, the feverish passion for continually buying 
of which the other was suspected. The contradictory 
reports in circulation, whispered at first, ended in trum- 
pet-blasts. As soon as they opened their mouths, some 
shouted to make themselves heard amid the uproar, while 
others, full of mystery, leaned over and whispered in the 
ears of .their companions, even when they had nothing to 
say. 

“ Well, I maintain my positions for a rise,” continued 


money. 325 

Pillerault, already firmer. “The sun is shining too 
brightly, everything is bound to rise.” 

“ Everything is bound to tumble,” replied Moser, with 
doleful obstinacy. “ The rain is not far off, I had a liver 
crisis last night.” 

But the smile of Salmon, who was listening to them in 
his turn, became so sharp that both remained dissatisfied, 
without possible certainty. Could it be that this devil of 
a man, so extraordinarily strong, so profound and discreet, 
had found a third way of gambling, preparing neither for 
a rise nor for a fall ? 

Saccard, at his pillar, saw the crowd of his flatterers 
and customers growing around him. Continually hands 
were outstretched, and he shook them all, with the same 
happy facility, putting into each pressure of his fingers a 
promise of triumph. Certain ones ran up, exchanged a 
word, and went away delighted. Many persisted in stay- 
ing about, reluctant to let go his hand, glorious at belong- 
ing to his group. Often he showed himself amiable, 
without recalling the names of those who spoke to him. 
Thus Captain Chave had tô mention Maugendre’s name 
before he recognized the latter : the Captain, reconciled 
with his brother-in-law, was urging him to sell, but the 
manager’s pressure of his hand was sufficient to inflame 
Maugendre with unlimited hope. Then there was Sé- 
dille, the director, the great silk merchant, who wanted a 
minute’s consultation. His commercial house was in dan- 
ger, his entire fortune was bound up with that of the 
Universal to such an extent that the possible decline would 
mean his failure ; and, anxious, devoured by his passion, 
now having other troubles beside his son Gustave, who 
was not succeeding very well at Mazaud’s, he felt the ne- 
cessity of being re-assured, encouraged. With a tap upon 
the shoulder, Saccard sent him away, full of faith and 
ardor. Then there was a complete procession ; Kolb, 
the banker, who had realized long since, but who wanted 
to keep on good terms with fortune ; the Marquis de Bo- 
hain, who, with his haughty condescension of a grand 
lord, made a show of frequenting the Bourse, out of cu- 
riosity and idleness ; Huret himself, incapable of remain- 


326 


MONEY. 


ing angry, too subtle not to be the friend of people until 
the day of the final crash, coming to see if there was 
nothing more to be picked up. But Daigremont ap- 
peared ; all stepped aside. He was very powerful ; they 
noticed his amiability, the way in which he joked, with 
an air of trusting comradeship. The bulls were radiant, 
for he had the reputation of an adroit man, who knew 
how to leave houses as soon as the planks began to 
crack ; and this made it certain that the Universal was 
not yet cracking. And finally others circulated about, 
who simply exchanged glances with Saccard,«men in his 
service, the employees charged with giving orders, buy- 
ing also on their own account, in the rage for gambling 
which, like an epidemic, was decimating the personnel 
of the Rue de Londres* always on the watch, with ears at 
keydioles, on the hunt for “tips.” Thus, twice, Sabatani 
passed, with his soft grace of an Oriental lined with an 
Italian, pretending not even to see his patron ; while 
Jantrou, standing motionless a few steps away, with back 
turned, seemed absorbed in the reading of despatches 
from foreign stock markets,' posted in grated frames. 
The remisier Massias, who, always on the run, jostled the 
group, made a little sign with his head, doubtless to give 
an answer, regarding some commission quickly executed. 
And as the hour of opening approached, the endless 
tramping, the double current of the crowd, furrowing the 
hall, filled it with the profound shocks and the roar of a 
rising tide. They were waiting for the first quotation. 

At the corbeille Mazaud and Jacoby, leaving the brokers’ 
room, had just entered, side by side, with an air of correct 
confraternity. Yet they knew each other for adversaries 
in the merciless struggle which had been going on for 
weeks, and which might end in the ruin of one of them. 
Mazaud, short, with his slight figure of a pretty man, 
showed a gay vivacity, in which one could see his luck 
thus far so favorable, the luck which had caused him to 
inherit from the estate of one of his uncles at the age of 
thirty-two; while Jacoby, a former attorney, become a 
broker after long service, thanks to customers who became 
his silent partners, had the huge belly and heavy gait of 


MONEY. 


327 


his sixty years, a tall man, grizzled and bald, with the 
broad, gay face of one who loves pleasure. And both, 
with their memorandum-books in their hands, talked of 
the fine weather, as if they did not hold there, on these 
few sheets, the millions which they were going to ex- 
change, like shots, in the murderous conflict of offer and 
demand. 

“ A fine frost, eh ? ” 

“ Oh Î just imagine, I walked down, the weather was so 
charming.” 

On reaching the corbeille , the vast circular basin, still 
free from the waste papers, the fiches which they scatter 
there, they stopped a moment, resting on the red velvet 
balustrade surrounding it, continuing to say to each other 
commonplace and interrupted things, while surveying the 
neighborhood out of the corners of their eyes. 

The four bays, in the form of a cross, shut off by iron 
railings, a sort of star with four branches having the cor- 
beille for its centre, was the sacred place where the public 
could not enter; and, in the fore part, between the 
branches, there was on one side another compartment, 
where the cash clerks were to be found, dominated by the 
three quoters, who sat on high chairs before their im- 
mense registers ; while, on the other side, a smaller com- 
partment, which was open, called “ the guitar,” doubtless 
because of its shape, permitted the employees and the 
speculators to come in direct contact with the brokers. 
At the rear, in the angle formed by two other branches, 
was held, in open crowd, the French bond market, where 
each broker was represented, as in the cash market, by a 
special clerk, with his distinct memorandum-book; for the 
brokers themselves, around the corbeille , gave their ex- 
clusive attention to time operations, entirely absorbed in 
the great ungovernable business of gambling. 

But, perceiving, in the bay at the left, his attorney, Ber- 
thier, who was making signs to him, Mazaud went to ex- 
change a few words with him in an undertone, the at- 
torneys having only the right to be in the bays, at a re- 
spectful distance from the red velvet balustrade, which 
no profane hand can touch. Every day Mazaud thus 


32S 


MONEY 


came to the Bourse, with Berthier and his two clerks, the 
cash clerk and the bond clerk, who were generally accom- 
panied by the liquidator; to say nothing of the despatch 
clerk, who was always the little Flory, his face more and 
more deeply buried in his thick beard, whence emerged 
only the lustre of his soft eyes. Since his profit of ten 
thousand francs, on the day after Sadowa, Flory, crazed 
by the demands of Chuchu, who had become capricious 
and ravenous, had gambled wildly on his own account, 
without any calculation, devoted to Saccard’s play, which 
he followed with blind faith. His acquaintance with the 
orders, and the telegrams which passed through his hands, 
sufficed to guide him. And at this moment, as he was 
running down from the telegraph office located in the 
second story,, with both hands full of despatches, he sent 
an attendant to call Mazaud, who left Berthier to come 
to the guitar. 

“ Monsieur, is it necessary to-day to sum them up and 
classify them ? ” 

“Undoubtedly, if they are coming thus en masse. 
What are all those ? ” 

“ Oh ! Universal, orders to buy, almost all.” 

The broker, with a practised hand, turned over the de- 
spatches, visibly satisfied. Very much involved with 
Saccard, whom he had long been carrying for considerable 
sums, having received from him that very morning still 
further enormous orders to buy, he had finally become 
the Universal’s authorized broker. And, although not 
greatly anxious so far, this persistent infatuation of the 
public, these obstinate purchases in spite of the extrava 
gance of the rise, re-assured him. One name struck him, 
among the signers of the despatches, that of Fayeux, the 
dividend-collector in Vendôme, who must have secured 
an enormous number of petty buyers among the farmers, 
devotees, and priests of his province, for not a week 
passed in which he did not thus send telegrams after 
telegrams. 

“ Give those to the cash-clerk,” said Mazaud to Flory. 
“ And do not wait for them to bring down the despatches. 
Stay up there, and take them yourselL” 


MONEY. 


329 

Flory went to lean over the balustrade of the cash de- 
partment, shouting at the top of his voice : 

“ Mazaud ! Mazaud ! ” 

And it was Gustave Sédille who approached, for at the 
Bourse the employees lose their own names, and are 
known only by the name of the broker whom they rep- 
resent. Flory, too, was called Mazaud. After having 
been out of the office for nearly two years, Gustave had 
just returned to it, to induce his father to pay his debts; 
and, on this occasion, in the absence of the principal 
clerk, he was acting as cash-clerk, which amused him. 
Flory leaning over to his ear, both agreed to buy for 
Fayeux only at the last quotation, after having gambled 
on his orders for themselves, first buying and selling 
again in the name of their usual man of straw, so as to 
pocket the balance, since the rise seemed certain to them. 

Meanwhile Mazaud returned toward the corbeille. But 
at every step an attendant handed him, on behalf of some 
customer who had been unable to approach, a fiche on 
which an order was scribbled in pencil. Each broker had 
his own fiche , of a special color, red, yellow, blue, green, 
that he might recognize it easily. Mazaud’s was green, 
the color of hope ; and the little green papers continued 
to pile up between his fingers, in the continual goings 
and comings of the attendants, who took them at the 
ends of the bays from the hands of the employees and 
speculators, who were all provided with a supply of these 
fiches , so as to save time. As he again stopped before 
the velvet balustrade, he found Jacoby there once more, 
who likewise held a handful of fiches , continually grow- 
ing, red fiches , the color of freshly-shed blood : undoubt- 
edly orders from Gundermann and his faithful followers, 
for no one was ignorant of the fact that Jacoby, in the 
massacre which was preparing, was the broker of the 
bears, the principal executioner of the Jewish bank. And 
now he was talking with another broker, Delarocque, his 
brother-in-law, a Christian who had married a Jewess, a 
stout, thick-set man, with a sandy complexion and very 
bald, prominent in the clubs, who was known to receive 
orders from Daigremont, fallen out recently with Jacoby, 


MONEY. 


33Ô 

as he had formerly fallen out with Mazaud. The story 
which he was telling, — of a woman who had returned to 
her husband’s house without her chemise, — lighted his 
little blinking eyes, while he waved, in passionate panto 
mime, his memorandum book, from which protruded the 
package of his fiches , which were blue, the soft blue of an 
April sky. 

“ Monsieur Massias is asking for you,” an attendant 
came to say to Mazaud. 

The latter quickly returned to the end of the bay. The 
remisier, completely in the pay of the Universal, brought 
him news from the coulisse , which was already in opera- 
tion under the peristyle, in spite of the terrible cold. A 
few speculators ventured just the same, coming in now 
and then to warm themselves in the hall, while the coulis- 
siers , wrapped in heavy overcoats, with fur collars turned 
up, kept their places, in a circle as usual, underneath the 
clock, animated, shouting, gesticulating so vehemently, 
that they did not feel the cold. And the little Nathan- 
sohn showed himself among the most active, in a fairway 
to become a man of importance, favored by chance since 
the day when, resigning his position as a simple little 
clerk at the Crédit Mobilier, he had had the idea of rent- 
ing a room and opening a wicket. 

Speaking rapidly, Massias explained that, as prices 
seemed to have a downward tendency under the package 
of shares with which the bears were overwhelming the 
market, Saccard had just had the idea of operating at the 
coulisse to influence the opening official quotation at the 
corbeille. The Universal had closed the day before at three 
thousand and thirty francs ; and he had given an order 
to Nathansohn to buy a hundred shares, which another 
coulissier was to offer at three thousand and thirty-five. 
That was a rise of five francs. 

“ All right ! the quotation will reach us,” said Mazaud. 

And he came back, among the groups of brokers, which 
were now full. There were sixty of them, already doing 
business among themselves, in spite of the rule, at the 
mean quotation of the day before, while waiting for the 
opening stroke of the bell. Orders given at a fixed rate 


MONEY. 


33 î 

in advance had no influence on the market, since it was 
necessary to wait for this figure to be quoted ; whereas 
orders at will, the execution of which was left to the 
judgment of the broker, determined the continual oscilla- 
tion in the different directions. A good broker must 
have delicacy and foresight, prompt brain and agile mus- 
cles, for rapidity often assured success ; to say nothing of 
the necessity of being in intimate relations with the high 
bank, of gathering information from every source, and of 
being the first to receive despatches from French and for- 
eign stock-markets. And he must also have a strong 
voice, in order to shout loudly. 

But it struck one ; the peal of the bell passed like a 
gust of wind over the violent wave of heads ; and the last 
vibration had not died out, when Jacoby, with both 
hands resting on the velvet, shouted in a roaring voice, 
the loudest of the band : 

“ I have Universal ; I have Universal.” 

He did not fix the price, waiting for the demand. The 
sixty had drawn near and formed a circle around the 
corbeille , where already a few scattered fiches spotted the 
floor with bright colors. Face to face, they all scrutin- 
ized each other, examining each other like duellists at the 
beginning of an affair, in a great hurry to see the first 
quotation established. 

“ I have Universal,” repeated the growling bass of 
Jacoby. “ I have Universal.” 

“At what price, Universal?” asked Mazaud in a thin 
voice, but so shrill that it dominated that of his colleague, 
as the strain of a flute is heard above a violoncello accom- 
paniment. 

And Delarocque proposed the rate of the day before. 

“At three thousand and thirty I take Universal.” 

And directly another broker raised him. 

“At three thousand and thirty-five, deliver Universal.” 

It was the quotation from the coulisse which had come 
in, preventing the deal which Delarocque had intended : 
a purchase at the corbeille and a prompt sale at the cou- 
lisse, in order to pocket the five francs’ rise. Accordingly 


MOtfEV. 


332 

Mazaud made up his mind, certain of being approved by 
Saccard. 

“ At three thousand and forty I take. Deliver Univer- 
sal at three thousand and forty.” 

“ How many? ” Jacoby had to’ask. 

“ Three hundred.” 

Both wrote a line in their memorandum-books, and the 
bargain was concluded ; the first quotation was estab- 
lished, with a rise of ten francs over the quotation of the 
day before. Mazaud stepped aside, to give the figure 
to the quoter who had the Universal on his register. 
Then, for twenty minutes, there was a veritable flood-gate 
opened : the quotations of the other stocks were likewise 
established, the whole bundle of business brought by the 
brokers was executed, without great variations. And 
meanwhile the quoters, in their high seats, between the 
uproar of the corbeille and that of the cash, which was 
also in feverish operation, had great difficulty in inscribing 
all the new figures thrown at them by the brokers and the 
clerks. At the rear, the bond market was similarly raging. 
Since the opening there was no longer the simple roar of 
the crowd, with that continuous sound of flowing waters, 
but above this formidable rumbling now rose the discord- 
ant cries of offer and demand, a characteristic yelping, 
which rose, and fell, and stopped, only to be taken up 
again in unequal and ear-splitting tones, like the cries of 
birds of pillage in the tempest. 

Saccard smiled, standing near his pillar. His court had 
grown still larger ; the rise of ten francs in Universal had 
just filled the Bourse with excitement, for it had long 
been predicted that on the day of liquidation there would 
be a crash. Huret had approached with Sédille and Kolb, 
pretending to regret aloud his prudence, which had led' 
him to sell his shares at twenty-five hundred ; while Dai- 
gremont, with an air of unconcern, walking arm in arm with 
the Marquis de Bohain, gayly explained to him the defeat 
of his stable at the autumn races. But, above all, Mau- 
gendre triumphed, overwhelming Captain Chave, who per- 
sisted nevertheless in his pessimism, saying it was neces- 
sary to await the end. And the same scene was repro- 


MONEY. 


333 


duced between the boastful Pillerault and the melan- 
choly Moser, the one radiant over this insane rise, the 
other clenching his fists and talking of this stubborn, im- 
becile advance as of a 'wild beast which in the end was 
bound to be slaughtered nevertheless. 

An hour passed ; the quotations remained almost the 
same ; business continued at the corbeille , less briskly, but 
keeping pace with the new orders and despatches which 
arrived. Toward the middle of each day’s Bourse there 
was a similar relaxation, a lull in the current transactions, 
while awaiting the decisive struggle over the last quota- 
tion. Nevertheless Jacoby’s roar was always to be heard, 
cut by the shrill notes of Mazaud, both of them dealing in 
options. “ I have Universal at three thousand and forty, 
of which fifteen.” “I take Universal at three thousand 
and forty, of which ten.” “How many?” “Twenty- 
five.” “Deliver!” It must be orders from Fayeux that 
Mazaud was executing, for many provincial gamblers, 
in order to limit their loss, before daring to launch out 
into obligatory transactions, bought and sold on option. 
Then suddenly a rumor started, spasmodic voices rose : 
Universal had just gone down five francs ; and, stroke 
upon stroke, it went down ten francs, fifteen francs, 'it 
fell to three thousand and twenty-five. 

Just at that moment, Jantrou, who had reappeared, 
after a short absence, said in Saccard’s ear that the Bar- 
oness Sandorff was there, in the Rue Brongniart, in her 
coupé, and that she wanted to know whether to sell. 
This question, coming at the time when the price was 
declining, exasperated him. Again he saw the motion- 
less coachman, perched upon his high seat, the Baroness 
consulting her memorandum-book, as if at home, with 
closed windows. And he answered : 

“ Tell her to leave me in peace ! And if she sells, I 
strangle her.” 

Massias came running up, at the announcement of the 
decline of fifteen francs, as if in answer to an alarm, feel- 
ing that he would be needed. In fact, Saccard, who had 
prepared a stroke to lift the last quotation, a despatch 
which was to be sent from the Lyons Bourse, where the 


334 


MONEY. 


rise was certain, was beginning to be anxious over the 
non-arrival of the despatch, and this unexpected tumble 
of fifteen francs might precipitate a disaster. 

Shrewdly Massias did not stop In front of him, but ran 
against his elbow, and thus received his order, with ears 
on the alert. 

“Quick, to Nathansohn, four hundred, five hundred, 
whatever is necessary.” 

This was done so swiftly that Pillerault and Moser 
were the only ones to notice it. They started aftçr Mas- 
sias, in order to find out. Massias, now that he was in 
the pay of the Universal, had taken on an enormous im- 
portance. They tried to confess him, to read over his 
shoulder the orders which he received. And he him- 
self now realized superb profits. With his smiling good- 
nature of an unlucky fellow, whom fortune had treated 
harshly hitherto, he was astonished ; he declared that it 
was endurable after all, this dog’s life at the Bourse, 
where he no longer said that one must be a Jew in order 
to succeed. 

At the coulisse , in the freezing current of air which 
passed under the peristyle, and which the pale sun of 
three o’clock did little to warm, the Universal had de- 
clined less rapidly than at the corbeille . And Nathan- 
sohn, warned by his brokers, had just executed the deal 
which Delarocque had been unable to effect at the open- 
ing : buying in the hall at three thousand and twenty-five, 
he had sold again under the colonnade at three thousand 
and thirty-five. That did not take three minutes, and he 
made sixty thousand francs. Already the purchase at 
the corbeille had sent the stock up again to three thou- 
sand and thirty, by that balancing effect which the two 
markets, the legal and the tolerated, have upon one an- 
other. There was an incessant gallop of clerks, from the 
hall to the peristyle, elbowing their way through the 
crowd. Nevertheless, the price at the coulisse was about 
to decline, when the order that Massias brought to 
Nathansohn sustained it at three thousand and thirty-five 
and raised it to three thousand and forty; while, as a 
consequence, the stock rose again at the corbeille to the 


MONEY. 


335 


opening quotation. But it was difficult to maintain it 
there, for the tactics of Jacoby and the other brokers 
operating in the name of the bears was evidently to re- 
serve the large sales for the end of the Bourse, in order 
to crush the market and precipitate a collapse with them, 
in the confusion of the last half-hour. Saccard so clearly 
understood the danger, that, by a sign agreed upon, he 
warned Sabatani, who was smoking a cigarette a few 
steps away, with his unconcerned and languishing air of 
a ladies’ man ; and, straightway, slipping through the 
crowd with the subtleness of an adder, the latter made 
his way to the guitar, where, with ears on the alert and 
following the quotations, he did not cease to send orders 
to Mazaud, on green fiches , of which he had a supply. 
In spite of everything, the assault was so severe that 
again the Universal went down five francs. 

It was quarter before three ; only fifteen minutes left 
before the stroke of the bell for closing. At that mo- 
ment the crowd was turning and screaming, as if scourged 
by some torment from hell ; the corbeille was snarling and 
yelling, with the cracking sound of breaking copper. And 
then occurred the incident so anxiously awaited by Sac- 
card. 

The little Flory, who, from the beginning, had been 
coming down from the telegraph office every ten minutes, 
with his hands full of despatches, re appeared again, 
making a passage through the crowd, this time reading a 
telegram at which he seemed delighted. 

“ Mazaud ! ” called a voice. 

And Flory, naturally, turned his head, as if answering 
to his own name. It was Jantrou, who wanted to know. 
But the clerk jostled him aside, too much in a hurry, filled 
with joy at the thought that the Universal would end on 
the rise, for the despatch announced that the stock was 
going up at the Lyons Bourse, where such large purchases 
were being made that the effect would be felt at the 
Bourse at Paris. In fact, other telegrams were already 
arriving, a large number of brokers were receiving orders. 
The result was immediate and considerable. 

“ At three thousand and forty I take Universal,” re- 


336 


MONEY. 


peated Mazaud, with his exasperated voice at its highest 
pitch. 

And Delarocque, overflowing with demands, raised him 
five francs. 

“ At three thousand and forty-five I take”. . . 

“ I have at three thousand and forty-five,” bellowed 
Jacoby. “Two hundred, at three thousand and forty- 
five.” 

“ Deliver ! ” 

Then Mazaud went up himself. 

“ I take at three thousand and fifty.” 

“ How many ? ” 

“ Five hundred. Deliver ! ” 

But the frightful hubbub had reached such a height, 
amid epileptic gesticulation, that the brokers themselves 
could no longer hear each other. And, absorbed by the 
professional fury which agitated them, they continued 
by gestures, since the cavernous bass voices of some mis- 
carried, while the fluty tones of others thinned out into 
nothingness. Enormous mouths ware seen to open, from 
which no distinct sound seemed to come, and hands alone 
spoke : a gesture from within to without, which offered, 
another gesture from without to within, which accepted ; 
raised fingers indicated the quantities, heads said yes or 
no with a sign. Intelligible only to the 'initiated, it was 
like one of those strokes of madness which fall upon 
crowds. Above, in the telegraphers’ gallery, heads of 
women were leaning over, in astonishment and fear at the 
extraordinary spectacle. At the bond market one would 
have said there was a brawl in progress, a central group 
furious and resorting to fisticuffs, while the double current 
of the public that traversed this side of the hall displaced 
groups, which broke up and formed again incessantly, in 
continual eddies. Between the cash and the corbeille , 
above the unchained tempest of heads, were only the 
three quoters, sitting on their high chairs, who floated like 
waifs, with the great white spot of their register before 
them, pulled to the left, pulled to the right, by the rapid 
fluctuations of the quotations which were thrown at them. 
In the cash compartment especially the jostling was at its 


MONEY. 


337 


height, a compact mass of heads of hair, no faces to be 
seen, a dark swarming lighted only by the little clear notes 
of the memorandum-books waved in the air. And at the 
corbeille , around the basin which the crumpled fiches now 
filled with a blossoming of all colors, hair turned gray, 
skulls shone, there could be distinguished the paleness of 
shaken faces, hands feverishly outstretched, the whole 
dancing pantomime of bodies, seemingly ready to devour 
each other, if the balustrade had not restrained them. 
This rage of the last minutes had, moreover, gained the 
public; they crushed against each other in the hall, an 
enormous tramping, the helter-skelter of a huge crowd let 
loose in a too narrow passage ; and alone, amid the oblit- 
erating of the coats, silk hats shone, in the diffused light 
that fell from the windows. 

But suddenly the peal of a bell pierced the tumult. 
Everything quieted, gestures stopped, voices became silent, 
at the cash market, at the bond market, at the corbeille. 
There remained only the muffled rumbling of the public, 
like the continuous voice of a torrent returned to its bed, 
having finished overflowing. And, in the persistent 
agitation, the last quotations circulated, the Universal 
had risen to three thousand and sixty, a rise of thirty 
francs over the quotation of the day before. The rout of 
the bears was complete ; once more the liquidation was 
to be disastrous to them, for it would require large sums 
to pay the fortnight’s balances. • 

For a moment, Saccard, before leaving the hall, straight- 
ened up to his full height, as if to better take in the 
crowd around him at a glance. He had really grown, so 
lifted by his triumph that all his little person swelled, and 
lengthened, and became enormous. And the man whom 
he seemed thus to seek over the heads of the crowd was 
the absent Gundermann, Gundermann whom he would 
have liked to see struck down, grimacing, asking pardon ; 
and he was determined at least that all the unknown creat- 
ures of the Jew, all the dirty children of Israel who werç 
there, in morose mood, should see him, transfigured, in 
the gldry of his success. It was his grand day, the day of 
which they still speak, as they speak of Austerlitz and 


338 


MONEY. 


Marengo. His customers, his friends, had precipitated 
themselves upon him. The Marquis de Bohain, Sédille, 
Kolb, Huret, shook both his hands, while Daigremont, 
with the false smile of his worldly amiability, compli- 
mented him, well knowing that at the Bourse one dies by 
such victories. Maugendre could have kissed him on both 
cheeks in his exaltation, exasperated at seeing Captain 
Chave shrug his shoulders nevertheless. But the com- 
plete, religious adoration was that of Dejoie, who, coming 
from the newspaper office on the run, in order to know 
the last quotation at the earliest moment, stood a few 
steps away, motionless, nailed to the spot by tenderness 
and admiration, his eyes glittering with tears. Jantrou 
had disappeared, undoubtedly to carry the news to the 
Baroness Sandorff. Massias and Sabatani were panting, 
radiant, as on the triumphal evening of a great battle. 

“ Well, what did I tell you ? ” cried Pillerault, delighted. 

Moser, with nose elongated, growled out sullen threats. 

“Yes, yes, a short life and a merry one. The Mexican 
bill to pay, the affairs of Rome which have become still 
more confused since Mentana, Germany about to fall on 
us one of these fine mornings. Yes, yes, and these im- 
beciles who go up higher to fall the farther. Ah ! it is 
all up with them, you will see ! ” 

Then, as Salmon remained grave this time, while look- 
ing at him, he said : 

“Such is your opinion, is it not? When everything 
goes too well, everything is about to crack.” 

Meanwhile the hall was emptying; there would be 
nothing left in the air but the cigar-smoke, a bluish cloud, 
thickened and yellowed by the flying dust. Mazaud and 
Jacoby, resuming their correct deportment, had gone back 
to the brokers’ room together, the latter more agitated 
over his secret personal losses than over the defeat of his 
customers, while the former, who did not gamble, was 
filled with joy at the last quotation so valiantly lifted. 
They talked for a few minutes with Delarocque to ex- 
change engagements, holding in their hands their, mem- 
orandum-books full of notes, which their liquidators were 
to sum up that afternoon, in order to charge the transac- 


MONEY. 


339 


tions executed. Meantime, in the clerks’ hall, a low hall, 
crossed by large pillars, like an ill-kept school-room, with 
rows of desks, and a cloak-room at the back, Flory and 
Gustave Sédille, who had gone to get their hats, noisily 
rejoiced while waiting to know the mean quotation, which 
the employees of the syndicate, at one of the desks, were 
establishing from the highest quotation and the lowest. 
Toward half past three, when the placard had been 
posted on the pillar, they both neighed, and clucked, and 
crowed like roosters, in their satisfaction with the fine 
result of their traffic in Fayeux’ orders to purchase. This 
meant a pair of solitaires for Chuchu, who now tyrannized 
over Flory with her demands, and six months’ payment 
in advance for Germaine Cœur, whom Gustave had been 
stupid enough to definitively take away from Jacoby, the 
latter now having taken a Hippodrome rider by the month. 
Moreover, the uproar continued in the clerks’ hall, silly 
farces, a massacre of hats, amid a jostling of school-boys 
at play. And, on the other side, under the peristyle, the 
coulisse was finishing the settlement of its affairs, Nathan- 
sohn finally deciding to go down the steps, delighted with 
his deal, in the flood of the last speculators, who hung 
about, in spite of the cold, which had become terrible. 
At six o’clock all this world of gamblers, brokers, coulis- 
siers , and remisiers , after some had established their gain 
or their loss, and others had settled their brokerage bills, 
had gone home to dress, in order to end the whirl of the 
day, with their perverted notion of money, in the restau- 
rants and the theatres, the fashionable soirées and the gal- 
lant alcoves. 

On that evening, Paris which sits up and amuses itself 
talked only of the formidable duel upon which Gunder- 
mann and Saccard had entered. The women, entirely 
absorbed in gambling by passion and fashion, made a show 
of using the technical terms,— liquidation, option, report , 
deport , — without always understanding them. They talked 
especially of the critical situation of the bears, who, for 
so many months, with each new liquidation, had been 
paying balances that grew larger and larger in proportion 
as Universal went up, surpassing all reasonable limits, 


340 


MONEY- 


Certainly many were gambling without furnishing security, 
getting their brokers to carry them, so as to limit their 
loss ; and, as the interest on the money necessary to re- 
deem at the time of liquidation, when one has sold at the 
quotation of the day, rose in proportion as money be- 
came scarcer, the bears, exhausted and crushed, would 
surely be annihilated if the rise continued. But the sit- 
uation of Gundermann, who was reputed to be their 
omnipotent chief, was different, for he had not to be car- 
ried, he had his billion in his cellars, inexhaustible troops 
which he sent to the massacre, however long and murder- 
ous the campaign might be. It was the invincible force, 
the power to raise the shares, to have them always ready 
for delivery, to even pay high prices for them, if necessary, 
with the best of his gold. And they talked ; they calcu- 
lated the considerable sums which he must have already 
poured in, in thus advancing, on the fifteenth and thirtieth 
of each month, sacks of coin which melted in the fire of 
speculation, like ranks of soldiers swept away by bullets. 
Never before had he sustained at the Bourse such a severe 
assault upon his power, which he wished to be sovereign, 
indisputable ; for, if he was, as he loved to repeat, a simple 
money merchant, and not a gambler, he was clearly con- 
scious of the fact that, to remain this merchant, the first 
of the world, disposing of public fortune, he must be the 
absolute master of the market ; and he was fighting, not 
for the immediate profit, but for his royalty itself, for his 
life. Hence the cold obstinacy, the grim grandeur of the 
struggle. He was to be met upon the boulevards, along 
the Rue Vivienne, with his pale and impassible face, his 
step of an exhausted old man, nothing in him betraying 
the slightest anxiety. He believed only in logic. The 
madness began when the Universal stock rose above two 
thousand francs ; at three thousand it was pure insanity ; 
it was bound to fall, as the stone thrown into the air inev- 
itably falls to the ground ; and he waited. Would he go 
to the end of his billion ? They trembled with admiration 
around Gundermann, .with the desire also to see him de- 
voured at last ; while Saccard, who excited a more tumul- 
tuous enthusiasm, had with him the women, the salons , 


MONEY. 


34Î 


the whole fashionable world of gamblers, who had pock- 
eted such handsome balances since they began to coin 
money with their faith, in trafficking on Mount Carmel 
and Jerusalem. The approaching ruin of the Jewish high 
bank was decreed ; Catholicism was going to have the em- 
pire of money, as it had had that of souls. Only, though 
his troops were winning heavily, Saccard was approach- 
ing the end of his cash, emptying his vaults for his con- 
tinual purchases. Of the two hundred millions at his 
disposal nearly two-thirds had been thus fixed : it was too 
great prosperity, the asphyxiating triumph by which one 
stifles. Every Society which wishes to be mistress at 
the Bourse, in order to sustain the price of its stock, is a 
condemned Society. Consequently, at the beginning, he 
had intervened only with prudence. But he had always 
been the man of imagination, seeing on a too grand scale, 
transforming into poems his doubtful dealings as an ad- 
venturer ; and this time, with this really colossal and 
prosperous enterprise, he had arrived at extravagant 
dreams of conquest, at an idea so crazy, so enormous, 
that he did not even clearly formulate it to himself. Ah! 
if he had millions, millions always, like these dirty Jews ! 
The worst was that he saw the end of his troops, only a 
few millions more good for the massacre. Then, if the 
fall should come, it would be his turn to pay balances ; 
and he would be obliged to get someone to carry him. 
In his victory the ^smallest bit of gravel must ruin his 
vast machine. There was a secret consciousness of this, 
even among the faithful, those who believed in the rise as 
in the good God. It was this which finished the passion 
of Paris, the confusion and doubt with which it was 
agitated’ this duel of Saccard and Gundermann in which 
the conqueror would lose all his blood, this hand-to-hand 
struggle of two legendary monsters, crushing between 
them the poor devils who risked following their play, 
threatening to strangle each other on the heap of ruins 
which they were piling up. 

Suddenly, on the third of January, on the morrow of 
the day when the accounts of the last liquidation had 
just been settled, the Universal went down fifty francs. 


342 


MONEY. 


There was a great excitement. In truth everything had 
gone down ; the market, so long overdriven, swollen be- 
yond measure, was cracking in every direction ; two or 
three doubtful enterprises had noisily collapsed ; and 
moreover, they must have been accustomed to these 
violent shiftings of prices, which sometimes varied several 
hundred francs in the same day’s Bourse, like the needle 
of the compass in the middle of a storm. But in the 
great shudder which passed all felt the beginning of the 
crash. Universal was going down, the cry rose and 
spread, amid the clamor of a crowd, made up of astonish- 
ment, hope, and fear. 

The next day Saccard, solid and smiling at his post, 
sent the price up again thirty francs by means of large 
purchases. But on the fifth, in spite of his efforts, the 
decline was forty francs. Universal stood only at three 
thousand. And from that time each day brought its 
battle. On the sixth Universal went up again. On the 
seventh and the eighth it went down again. There was an 
irresistible movement, dragging it little by little, in a slow 
fall. They were going to make it the scape-goat, to force 
it to expiate the folly of all, the crimes of other affairs 
less prominent, of that swarm of doubtful enterprises, 
overheated by puffery, which had grown up like monstrous 
mushrooms in the compost of the reign. But Saccard, 
who slept no more, who every afternoon resumed his post 
of combat, near his pillar, lived in the hallucination of 
always possible victory. Like the commander of an army 
who is convinced of the excellence of his plans, he yielded 
his ground only step by step, sacrificing his last soldiers, 
emptying the Society’s vaults of their last sacks of coin, to 
obstruct the progress of the assailants. On the ninth he 
again won a signal advantage : the bears trembled and 
recoiled. Was the liquidation of the fifteenth once more 
to fatten upon their persons ? And he, already without 
resources, reduced to launching paper into circulation, 
npw dared, like those starving people who see immense 
feasts in the delirium of their hunger, to confess to him- 
self the prodigious and impossible object toward which 
he was tending, the giant idea of repurchasing all the 


MONËV. 


343 


shares, in order to hold the uncovered sellers, bound hand 
and foot, at his mercy. This had just been done in the 
case of a little railway company ; the house of issue had 
picked up everything in the market ; and the sellers, unable 
to deliver, had surrendered as slaves, forced to offer 
their fortunes and their persons. Ah ! if he could hunt 
down and frighten Gundermann to the point of obliging 
him to play uncovered ! If he could thus see him, some 
morning, bringing his billion, begging him not to take it 
entirely, but to leave him ten sous’ worth of milk a day 
on which to live. Only, for such a stroke, seven or eight 
hundred millions were necessary. He had already thrown 
over two hundred into the gulf ; five or six hundred more 
would have to be arrayed in line of battle. With six 
hundred millions he would sweep away the Jews, become 
the king of gold, the master of the world. What a dream . 
and it was very simple, the idea of the value of money 
disappeared at this stage of the fever, there were only 
pawns to be moved upon the chess-board. In his nights 
of insomnia he raised this army of six hundred millions, 
and had them killed for his glory, victorious at last amid 
disasters, upon the ruins of everything. 

Saccard, on the tenth, unfortunately had a terrible day. 
At the Bourse he was always superb in his gayety and 
calmness. And yet never had war shown such silent 
ferocity, slaughter at every hour, ambuscades on every 
hand. In these battles of money, secret and cowardly, 
where they disembowel the weak without noise, there are no 
ties no relationships, no friendships : it is the atrocious law 
of the strong, those who eat that they may not be eaten. 
Consequently he felt himself absolutely alone, having 
nothing to sustain him but his insatiable appetite, which 
kept him erect, ever ravenous. He dreaded especially 
the day of the fourteenth, the day for the answers on the 
options. But he still found money for the three days 
preceding, and the fourteenth, instead of brin | in g , a 
crash strengthened the Universal, which, on the fifteenth, 
ended in liquidation at two thousand nine hundred and 
sixty a decline of only a hundred francs from the last 
quotation of December. He had fears of disaster, he 


344 


MONEY. 


pretended to believe it a victory. In reality, for the first 
time the bears were on top, at last receiving balances, 
they who had been paying them for months ; and, the 
situation being reversed, he had to get Mazaud to 
carry him, who from that time found himself heavily in- 
volved. The second fortnight of January was going to 
be decisive. 

Since struggling in this way, in these daily shocks 
which lowered him into the abyss and again lifted him 
from it, Saccard had felt every evening an uncontrollable 
necessity of whirl. He could not remain alone, dined in 
the city, finished his nights on a woman’s neck. Never 
had he thus burned his life, showing himself everywhere, 
frequenting the theatres and the wine-shops where they 
sup, affecting the extravagance of a man who has more 
money than he can spend. He avoided Madame Caro- 
line, whose remonstrances embarrassed him, always tell- 
ing him of the anxious letters which she received from 
her brother, in despair herself over his campaign as a 
bull, thinking it frightfully dangerous. And he oftener 
saw the Baroness Sandorff, as if this cold perversion, in 
the little unknown ground-floor of the Rue Caumartin, 
gave him the hour of forgetfulness necessary to the re- 
laxation of his overworked and tired brain. Sometimes 
he took refuge there to examine certain papers and 
reflect upon certain affairs, happy in the thought that 
in this place no one would disturb him. Sleep overcame 
him there; he would sleep an hour or two, the only de- 
lightful hours of annihilation; and then the Baroness 
had no scruples about searching his pockets and reading 
the letters in his pocket-book ; for he had become com- 
pletely dumb, she could no longer get a bit of useful 
information from him, so convinced even that he was ly- 
ing to her, when she extracted a word, that she no 
longer dared to play on the strength of his indications. 
It was while thus stealing his secrets that she had ac- 
qmred the certainty of the embarrassment for money in 
which the Universal was beginning to struggle, a whole 
vast system of accommodation paper which it was getting 
discounted in foreign countries, cautiously. One night, 


MONEY. 


345 

Saccard, waking too soon and catching her in the act of 
searching his pocket-book, had boxed her ears as if she 
were a girl fishing sous from gentlemen’s waistcoats; and 
since that time he had beaten her, which at first enraged 
them both, and then exhausted and calmed them. 

Meanwhile, after the liquidation of the fifteenth, in 
which she had lost ten thousand francs, the Baroness be- 
gan to nurse a project. She was possessed by it, and 
finally went to consult Jantrou. 

“ Indeed ! ” the latter answered, “ I believe that you 
are right; it is time to pass over to Gundermann. So go 
and see him, and tell him of the matter, since he has 
promised you that, on the day when you should bring 
him a good counsel, he would give you another in 
exchange.” 

Gundermann, on the morning when the Baroness pre- 
sented herself, was as surly as a bear. Only the day 
before the Universal had gone up again. Would they 
never end, then, with this voracious beast, which had 
eaten so much of his gold and was so obstinate about 
dying? It was.quite capable of going up further, of end- 
ing once more on the rise, on the thirty-first of the 
month ; and he growled at himself for having entered 
upon this disastrous rivalry, when perhaps he would 
have done better to take his share in the new establish- 
ment at the start. Shaken in his ordinary tactics, losing 
his faith in the inevitable triumph of logic, he would have 
resigned himself at that moment to a retreat, if he could 
have executed it without loss. They were rare with him, 
these moments of discouragement which the greatest 
captains know on the very eve of victory, when men and 
things are plotting their success. And this disturbance 
of a powerful vision, usually so clear, was due to the fog 
which is produced in the long run by this mystery of the 
operations of the Bourse, under which it is never possible 
to place a name with surety. Certainly Saccard was buy- 
ing, gambling. But was he acting for serious customers, 
or for the Society itself? Upon this point he could not 
make up his mind, amid the gossip which was brought to 
him from every direction. The doors of his immense 


MONEY. 


346 

office slammed ; all his employees trembled at his wrath ; 
he received the remisiers so brutally that their usual pro- 
cession turned into a galloping rout. 

“Ah! it is you ! ” said Gundermann to the Baroness, 
without any politeness. “I have no time to lose with 
women to-day.” 

She was so disconcerted that she suppressed all the pre- 
liminaries which she had prepared, and dropped in one 
sentence the news which she brought. 

“And if one could prove to you that the Universal is 
at the end of its cash, after the large purchases which it 
has made, and that it is reduced to the point of getting 
accommodation paper discounted, in foreign countries, to 
continue the campaign?” 

The Jew had suppressed a thrill of joy. His eye re- 
mained dead ; he answered in the same grumbling voice: 

“ It isn’t true.” 

“ What ! it isn’t true ? Why, I have heard it with my 
own ears, I have seen it with my own eyes.” 

And she tried to convince him by explaining that she 
had held in her hands the notes signed by the men of 
straw. She named these last ; she gave" also the names 
of the bankers who, at Vienna, at Frankfort, at Berlin, 
had discounted the paper. His correspondents could 
inform him ; he would see that it was no gossip which she 
was retailing. And further she asserted that the Society 
had purchased for itself, for the sole purpose of sustain- 
ing the rise, and that two hundred millions had already 
been swallowed up. 

Gundermann, who listened to her with his dismal air, 
was already planning his campaign of the morrow, so 
ready at mental labor that in a few seconds he had dis- 
tributed his orders and determined upon the figures. 
Now he was certain of victory, knowing well from what 
filth the information came to him, full of contempt for 
this pleasure-loving Saccard, so stupid as to abandon him- 
self to a woman and allow himself to be sold. 

When she had finished, he raised his head, and, looking 
at her out of his large extinct eyes, he said : 


MONEY. 347 

“ Well, how does this concern me, all that you are tell- 
ing me?” 

She sat in astonishment, so unconcerned and calm did 
he appear. 

“ But it seems to me that your situation as a bear” . . . 

“ I ! Who told you that I was a bear ? I never go to 
the Bourse, I never speculate. All this is a matter of in- 
difference to me.” 

And his voice was so innocent that the Baroness, 
shaken and frightened, would in the end have believed 
him, but for certain inflections of a too bantering sim- 
plicity. Evidently he was laughing at her, in his absolute 
disdain, like a finished man, without any desire. 

“ Then, my good friend, as I am in a great hurry, if 
you have nothing more interesting to say to me ”... 

He evidently was turning her out. Then, furious, she 
rebelled : 

“ I have had confidence in you ; I spoke first. It is a 
real trap. You had promised me that, if I would be use- 
ful to you, you in your turn would be useful to me, and 
give me good counsel.” 

Rising, he interrupted her. He, who never laughed, 
gave a slight chuckle, so amusing did he find this brutal 
dupery of a young and pretty woman. 

“ Good counsel ! Why, I do not refuse it, my good 
friend. Listen to me. Never gamble, never gamble. It 
will make you homely ; a gambling woman is very ugly.” 

And when she had gone away, beside herself, he shut 
himself up with his two sons and his son-in-law, distributed 
the rôles , sent directly to Jacoby and the other brokers to 
prepare the grand stroke of to-morrow. His plan was 
simple : to do that which prudence had prevented him 
from risking hitherto, in his ignorance of the real situation 
of the Universal; to crush the market under enormous 
sales, now that he knew the Universal to be at the end 
of its resources, incapable of sustaining the quotations. 
He was going to advance the formidable reserve of his 
billion, like a general who wishes to end matters, and 
whose spies have informed him regarding the enemy’s 
weak point. Logic would triumph ; every stock is con- 


MONEY. 


34-8 

demned which rises above the real value which it repre- 
sents. 

On that same day, toward five o’clock, Saccard, warned 
of the danger by his keen scent, called upon Daigremont. 
He was feverish ; he felt that the hour had come to 
strike a blow at the bears, if they did not wish to allow 
themselves to be definitively beaten by them. And his 
giant idea tormented him, the colossal army of six hun- 
dred millions still to be raised, for the conquest of the world. 
Daigremont received him with his usual amiability, in his 
princely mansion, amid his costly pictures and all this 
dazzling luxury, paid for every fortnight by the balances 
at the Bourse, no one really knowing whether there was 
anything solid behind this show, always under the threat 
of .being swept away by a caprice of chance. So far he 
had not betrayed the Universal, refusing to sell, pretend- 
ing to show an absolute confidence, happy in this atti- 
tude of a good gambler playing for a rise, from which, for 
the rest, he was reaping large profits ; and it had even 
pleased him not to flinch after the unfavorable liquidation 
of the fifteenth, convinced, he said everywhere, that the 
rise would begin again, constantly on the watch however, 
ready to pass over to the enemy at the first grave symp- 
tom. Saccard’s visit, the extraordinary energy of which he 
gave proof, the enormous idea which he unfolded to him of 
gathering up everything in the market, struck him with 
real admiration. It was madness, but are not the great 
men of war and finance often only madmen who succeed? 
And he formally promised to come to his aid at the Bourse 
the next day; he had already taken strong positions, but 
he would go to Delarocque, his broker, and strengthen 
them still further; to say nothing of his friends whom he 
would go to see, a complete syndicate in themselves, 
whom he would bring as re-enforcements. In his opinion 
they could figure this new army corps at a hundred mill- 
ions, for immediate use. That would suffice. Saccard, 
radiant, certain of conquering, decided on his plan of bat- 
tle on the spot, a flank movement of rare boldness, bor- 
rowed from the most illustrious captains : in the first 
place, at the opening of the Bourse, a simple skirmish to 


MONEY. 


349 


attract the bears and give them confidence ; then, when 
the latter should have obtained a first success and the 
prices should be falling, the arrival of Daigremont and his 
friends with their heavy artillery, all these unexpected 
millions, emerging from an ambuscade, taking the bears 
in the rear and overthrowing them. It would be a crush, 
a massacre. The two men separated shaking hands and 
laughing triumphantly. 

An hour later, as Daigremont, who was to dine in the 
city, was about to dress, he received another visit, that of. 
the Baroness Sandorff. In her confusion she had been in- 
spired with the idea of consulting him. At one time she 
had been supposed to be his mistress ; but there was really 
nothing between them beyond a very free comradeship of 
man with woman. Both were too feline, and knew each 
other too well, to be duped into forming a liaison. She 
told her fears, described her visit to Gundermann, the 
latter’s reply, lying, however, as to the fever of treason 
winch had prompted her. And Daigremont laughed, and 
amused himself with frightening her further, assuming a 
shaken air, ready to believe that Gundermann told the 
truth when he swore that he was not a bear ; for can one 
ever tell ? The Bourse is a real forest, a forest in a dark 
night through which each gropes his way. In such dark- 
ness, if one has the misfortune to listen to all the silly 
and contradictory stories that are invented, he is certain 
to spoil his face. 

“Then,” she asked, anxiously, “ I should not sell? ” 

“Sell, why? It would be madness! To-morrow we 
shall be the masters; the Universal will go up again to 
thirty-one hundred. So stand firm, whatever happens : 
you will be content with the last quotation. I cannot tell 
you more.” 

The Baroness had gone, and Daigremont at last was 
dressing, when a ring at the bell announced a third visit. 
Ah ! this time, no ! he would not receive. But when 
they had handed him Delarocque’s card, he immediately 
ordered that he be shown in ; and as the broker, with an 
air of great agitation, waited before speaking, he sent 


350 


MONEY. 


away his valet de chambre , finishing putting on his white 
cravat himself, in front of a high mirror. 

“My dear fellow, listen,” said Delarocque, with his 
familiarity of a man belonging to the same club. “ I 
trust to your friendship, you see, because it is rather a 
delicate matter. Imagine that Jacoby, my brother-in-law, 
has just had the kindness to warn me of an assault that is 
preparing. At the Bourse to-morrow Gundermann and 
the others have decided to give the finishing stroke to 
the Universal. They are going to throw the entire pile 
upon the market. Jacoby already has orders, he has 
hastened ”. . . 

“ The devil ! ” ejaculated Daigremont, turning pale. 

“You understand, I have very strong positions for a 
rise ordered of me, yes ! to the amount of fifteen millions, 
enough to take arms and legs. So, you see, I have 
jumped into a carriage, and I am making the round of my 
serious customers. It is not correct, but the intention is 
good.” 

“ The devil ! ” repeated the other. 

“ In short, my good friend, as you are playing uncovered, 
I come to ask you to secure me or to abandon your posi- 
tion.” 

Daigremont gave a cry. 

“ Abandon, abandon, my dear fellow. Oh ! no, indeed ! 
I do not remain in falling houses ; that is useless heroism. 
Do not buy, sell ! My orders with you are for nearly 
three millions; sell, sell everything!” 

And, as Delarocque started off, saying that he had 
other customers to see. he took his hands and shook them 
energetically. 

“Thank you, I shall never forget. Sell, sell every- 
thing ! ” 

Left alone, he recalled his valet de chambre to have his 
hair and beard arranged. Ah ! what a blunder ! This 
time he had come mear allowing himself to be played like 
a child. That is what comes of associating one’s self 
with a madman ! 

In the evening, at the petty Bourse of eight o’clock, the 
panic began. This Bourse w^s then held upon the sidç- 


MONEY. 


351 


walk of the Boulevard des Italiens, at the entrance of the 
Passage de l’Opéra ; and there were only the conlissiers, 
operating amid a doubtful crowd of brokers, remisiers , and 
disreputable speculators. Street hawkers circulated ; 
gatherers of cigar-stumps crawled on all fours amid the 
tramping of the groups. An obstinate crowd obstructed 
the Boulevard, which the flood of promenaders occa- 
sionally swept away and dispersed, but which always 
formed again. On that evening nearly two thousand 
persons were- thus stationed there, thanks to the mildness 
of the côvered and misty sky, which betokeited rain after 
the terrible cold. The market was very active ; Universal 
was offered on all sides ; the quotations fell rapidly. 
Rumors soon became current, the air was full of anxiety. 
What had happened, then ? In an undertone they named 
the probable sellers, according to the remisier who gave the 
order, or the coulissier who executed it. If the big ones 
were selling in this way, something serious was preparing, 
surely. And from eight o’clock till ten there was a jost- 
ling ; all the keen-scented gamblers abandoned their 
positions ; there were even some who had time to change 
from buyers to sellers. They went to bed in a fever of 
uneasiness, as on the eve of great battles. 

The next day the weather was execrable ; it had rained 
all night ; a fine freezing rain had drenched the city, 
which the following thaw had changed into a cloaca of 
yellow and liquid mud. The Bourse at half-past twelve 
was clamoring in this downpour. Sheltered under the 
peristyle and in the hall, the crowd was enormous ; and 
soon the hall itself, by the drippings from the wet um- 
brellas, was changed into an immense puddle of muddy 
water. The black filth of the walls sweated ; there fell 
from the glass roof only a dim and reddish light, desper- 
ately melancholy. 

Amid the evil reports in circulation, extraordinary 
stories that deranged heads, all, on entering, sought Sac- 
card with their eyes, to scrutinize him. He was at his 
post, erect, near the accustomed pillar ; and he had the 
air of other days, of days of triumph, his air of brave 
gayet y and absolute confidence. He was not ignorant of 


MONEY. 


352 

the fact that Universal had gone down three hundred 
francs the night before at the petty Bourse ; he scented 
an immense danger. He expected a furious assault on 
the part of the bears ; but his plan of battle seemed to 
him unassailable ; Daigremont s flank movement, the un- 
expected arrival of an army of fresh millions, must sweep 
everything before it, and assure him once more the vic- 
tory. Henceforth he himself was without resources ; the 
vaults of the Universal were empty, he had scraped even 
to the centimes ; yet he did not despair, Mazaud was car- 
rying him, he had so thoroughly gained the latter, by con- 
fiding to him the support of Daigremont’s syndicate that 
the broker, without security, had just accepted further 
orders for purchase to the amount of several millions. 
The tactics agreed upon between them was not to let the 
quotations fall too low at the opening of the Bourse, but 
to sustain them, to wage war, while waiting for the re-en- 
forcements. The excitement was so great that Massias 
and Sabatani, abandoning useless strategy, now that the 
real situation was the subject of all gossip, came to talk 
openly with Saccard, and then ran to carry his last orders, 
the one to Nathansohn, under the peristyle, the other to 
Mazaud, still in the brokers’ room. 

It lacked ten minutes of one, and Moser, who arrived, 
pale from one of the effects of his liver crises, the pain of 
which had kept him from closing his eyes the night before, 
asked Pillerault to notice that everybody was yellow on 
this day, and had a sickly air. Pillerault, who, at the ap- 
proach of disaster, straightened up with all the bluster of 
a knight-errant, burst out laughing. 

“ Why, it is you, my dear fellow, who have the colic. 
Everybody is very gay. We are going to flank you by 
one of those deals which are long remembered.” 

The truth was that, in the general anxiety, the hall re- 
mained gloomy, under the reddish light, and this was es- 
pecially felt in the lowering of the rumble of voices. 
There was no longer the feverish outburst of the days 
when everything was rising, the agitation, the roar of a 
high tide, overflowing in all directions like a conqueror. 
They no longer ran, they nQ longer shouted, they glided, 


MONEY. 


353 


they talked in low tones, as in a house where there is 
sickness. Although the crowd was large, and already 
one could not circulate without stifling, only a distressed 
murmur arose, the whispering of current fears, deplorable 
news which they exchanged in each other’s ears. Many 
were silent, with livid, contracted faces, and enlarged 
eyes, which questioned other faces in despair. 

“ Salmon, you have nothing to say ? ” asked Pillerault, 
full of aggressive irony. 

“ Of course not,” murmured Moser ; “ he is like the 
rest, he has nothing to say, he is frightened.” 

Indeed, that day Salmon’s silence disturbed no one, in 
the profound and mutely expectant attitude of all. 

But it was around Saccard that crowded especially a 
flood of customers, trembling with uncertainty, eager for 
an encouraging word. Afterward it was- remembered 
that Daigremont did not show himself, any more than the 
deputy Huret, warned undoubtedly, once mors Rougon’s 
faithful dog. Kolb, amid a group of bankers, pretended 
to be absorbed in a huge purchase of gold. The Marquis 
de Bohain, above the vicissitudes of fortune, tranquilly 
promenaded his little pale and aristocratic head, certain 
of winning just the same, having given Jacoby an order to 
sellas much Universal as he had charged Mazaud to buy. 
And Saccard, besieged by the multitude of others, the 
simple believers, showed himself especially amiable and 
reassuring to Sédille and to Maugendre, who, with trem- 
bling lips and eyes moist with supplication, were in search 
of the hope of triumph. He vigorously pressed their 
hands, putting into his grasp the absolute promise of vic- 
tory. Then, like a constantly happy man, beyond the 
reach of all danger, he lamented over a trifle. 

“You see me in dismay. In this very cold weather a 
camélia was forgotten in my yard, and it is killed.” 

The remark ran through the hall; all were moved at 
the fate of the camélia. What a man, this Saccard ! with 
his impassible assurance, a smile always on his face, no 
one able to tell whether it was a mask, concealing the 
frightful anxieties which would have tortured any other 
man ! 


354 


MONEY. 


“The animal! how fine he is!” murmured Jantrou, in 
the ear of Massias, who was coming back. 

Just then Saccard called Jantrou, struck by a recollec- 
tion at this supreme moment, remembering the afternoon 
when, with this last, he had seen the coupé of the Baron- 
ess Sandorff stop in the Rue Brongniart. Was it still 
there on this day of crisis? Did the coachman, perched 
upon his seat, maintain his stony immobility in the beat- 
ing rain, while the Baroness, behind the closed windows, 
awaited the quotations ? 

“Certainly, she is there,” answered Jantrou, in an un- 
dertone, “ and heartily with you, thoroughly determined 
not to retreat a step. We are all here, solid at our 
posts.” 

Saccard was happy over this fidelity, although he 
doubted the disinterestedness of the lady and the others. 
However, in the blindness of his fever, he believed him- 
self still marching on to conquest, with his whole people 
of stockholders behind him, this people of the humble 
and the fashionable world, infatuated, fanaticized, pretty 
women mingled with servants, in the same impulse of 
faith. 

Finally the stroke of the bell sounded, passing like the 
lamentation of a tocsin over the frightened wave of heads. 
And Mazaud, who was giving orders to Flory, hurried 
back to the corbeille , while the young clerk rushed to the 
telegraph office, greatly agitated on his own account ; for, 
having been losing for some time, through persistently 
following the fortune of the Universal, he risked on this 
occasion a decisive stroke, on the strength of the story of 
Daigremont’s intervention, which he had heard in the 
office, behind a door. The corbeille was quite as anxious 
as the hall ; ever since the last liquidation, the brokers 
had plainly felt the ground trembling beneath them, amid 
such serious symptoms that their experience took alarm. 
Already partial crumblings had appeared ; the worn-out 
market, too heavily burdened, was cracking in every di- 
rection. Was this, then, to be one of those great cata- 
clysms, such as happen every ten or fifteen years, one of 
those crises of gambling in the stage of an acute fever, 


MONEY. 


355 


which decimates the Bourse, sweeping it out with a wind 
of death? At the bond market, at the cash market, the 
cries seemed to strangle each other, the jostling was 
rougher than ever, dominated by the high black sil- 
houettes of the quoters, who were waiting, with their 
pens in their fingers. And directly Mazaud, with his 
hands grasping the red velvet balustrade, saw Jacoby, on 
the other side of the circular basin, shouting with his deep 
voice : 

“ I have Universal. At twenty-eight hundred, I have 
Universal.” 

This was the last quotation of the petty Bourse of the 
night before; and, to immediately put a stop to the de- 
cline, he thought it prudent to take at this price. His 
shrill voice ro*se, dominating all the others : 

“ At twenty-eight hundred I take. Three hundred 
Universal; deliver!” 

Thus the first quotation was fixed. But it was impos- 
sible to maintain it. From all sides offers flowed in. He 
struggled desperately for half an hour, with no other re- 
sult than to slacken the rapidity of the fall. What sur- 
prised him was that he was no longer sustained by the 
coulisse. What, then, was Nathansohn about, whose or- 
ders to purchase he was expecting? And not until after- 
ward did he learn the shrewd tactics of this last, who, 
while buying for Saccard, sold on his own account, 
warned of the real situation by his Jew’s keen scent. Mas- 
sias, heavily involved himself as a buyer, ran up, out of 
breath, to report the rout of the coulisse to Mazaud, who 
lost his head and burned his last cartridges, letting loose 
at one stroke the orders which he was reserving to exe- 
cute in instalments, until the arrival of the re-enforce- 
ments. This sent the price up a little ; from twenty-five 
hundred it rose to twenty-six hundred and fifty, with the 
sudden leaps of days of tempest ; and again for a moment 
hope was unlimited in Mazaud, in Saccard, in all those 
who were in the secret of the plan of battle. Now that 
the stock had started up again, the day was won, and the 
victory would be crushing when the reserve should open 
on the bears’ flank and change their defeat into a fright- 


MONEY. 


356 

fui rout. There was a movement of profound joy ; Sé- 
dille and Maugendre could have kissed Saccard’s hand, 
Kolb drew nearer, while Jantrou disappeared, running to 
carry the good news to the Baroness Sandorff. And at 
this moment the little Flory, radiant, was seen hunting 
everywhere for Sabatani, who now served him as an in- 
termediary, to give him a new order to buy. 

But it had just struck two, and Mazaud, who bore the 
brunt of the attack, again weakened. His surprise in- 
creased at the delay of the re-enforcements in entering the' 
battle. It was high time ; what were they waiting for ? 
Why did they not relieve him from the untenable position 
in which he was exhausting himself? Although, through 
professional pride, he showed an impassible countenance, 
a keen sensation of cold was rising to his cheeks, and he 
feared that he was turning pale. Jacoby, thundering, 
continued to hurl his offers at him, in methodical parcels, 
which he ceased to pick up. And it was no longer at 
Jacoby that he was looking ; his eyes were turned toward 
Delarocque, Daigremont’s broker, whose silence he did 
not understand. Stout and thick-set, with his reddish 
beard, and the same smiling and beatific air which he 
would have shown at an evening party, the latter remained 
peaceable, in his inexplicable waiting. Was he not going 
to pick up all these offers, and save everything, by the 
orders to buy, with which the fiches in his hand must be 
overflowing ? 

Suddenly, with his guttural voice, slightly hoarse, 
Delarocque threw himself into the struggle : 

“ I have Universal. I have Universal.” 

And in a few minutes he had offered several millions. 
Voices answered him. The quotations collapsed. 

“ I have at twenty-four hundred.” “ I have at twenty- 
three hundred.” “ How many ? ” “ Five hundred, 

six hundred.” “ Deliver ! ” 

What, then* was he saying? What was taking place? 
Instead of the expected aid, was this a new hostile army 
which was emerging from the neighboring woods ? As 
at Waterloo, Grouchy did not arrive, and it was treason 
that finished the rout. Before these profound and fresh 


MONEY. 357 

masses of sellers, charging at double quick, a frightful 
panic declared itself. 

At this second, Mazaud felt death pass over his face. 
He had-carried Saccard for too large sums, he was clearly 
conscious that the Universal was breaking his back in its 
fall. But his handsome dark face, with its small mus- 
tache, remained impenetrable and brave. He still bought, 
exhausted the orders which he had received, with his 
piercing voice of a young cock, as shrill as in the hours of 
success. And opposite him, his counterparts, the roaring 
Jacoby, the apopleptic Delarocque, in spite of their efforts 
at indifference, showed more anxiety than he, for they 
saw that he was now in great danger, and would he pay 
them, if he should fail ? Their hands grasped the velvet 
of the balustrp.de, their voices continued to shout, as if 
mechanically, from the habit of their trade, while their 
fixed looks exchanged all the frightful anguish of this 
tragedy of money. 

Then, during the last half-hour, came the break-up, the 
rout becoming aggravated and carrying away the crowd 
in a disorderly gallop. After the extreme confidence, the 
blind infatuation, came the reaction of fear, all rushing to 
sell, if there was still time. A hail of orders to sell beat 
upon the corbeille , there was nothing to be seen but the 
rain of fiches; and these enormous parcels of shares, 
thrown thus imprudently, accelerated the decline, a 
veritable collapse. The quotations, from fall to fall, tum- 
bled to fifteen hundred, to twelve hundred, to nine hun- 
dred. There were no more buyers ; the ground was 
strewn with corpses, nothing was left standing. Above 
the dark swarming of the frock-coats, the three quoters 
seemed like mortuary clerks, registering deaths. By a sin- 
gular effect of the wind of disaster which traversed the hall, 
the agitation congealed, the uproar died away, as in the 
stupor of a great catastrophe. A frightful silence pre- 
vailed when, after the stroke of the bell for closing, the 
last quotation of eight hundred and thirty francs was 
known. And the obstinate rain still streamed upon the 
windows, through which filtered only a doubtful twilight ; 
the hall had become a cloaca, under the dripping of the 


358 


MONEY. 


umbrellas and the tramping of the crowd, the muddy soil 
of an ill-kept stable, in which all sorts of torn papers were 
dragging ; while in the corbeille shone the variegated 
fiches , the greens, the reds, the blues, scattered by the 
handful, so abundant on this day that the vast basin 
overflowed. • 

Mazaud had re-entered the brokers’ room, at the same 
time as Jacoby and Delarocque. He approached the 
buffet, and drank a glass of beer, consumed by an ardent 
thirst ; and he looked at the immense room, with its 
cloak-room, its long central table around which were 
arranged the arm-chairs of the sixty brokers, its red velvet 
hangings, all its common-place and faded luxury, which 
made it look like a first-class waiting-room in an immense 
railway-station ; he looked at it with the astonished air of 
a man who had never had a good view of it before. Then, 
as he started, without a word, he shook hands with Jacoby 
and Delarocque, with the accustomed grasp, all three turn- 
ing pale, under their ordinarily correct attitude. He had 
told Flory to wait for him at the door ; and there he 
found him, in company with Gustave, who had defini- 
tively left the office the week before, and who had come 
as a simple spectator, always smiling, leading a gay life, 
never asking himself whether his father, on the morrow^ 
would still be able to pay his debts; while Flory, pale’ 
with little imbecile sneers, was trying to talk, under the 
frightful loss of a hundred thousand francs which had 
just fallen upon him, he not knowing where to get the 
first sou. Mazaud and his clerk disappeared in the rain. 

But in the hall the panic had especially raged around 
Saccard, and it was there that the war had made its rav- 
ages. Without understanding at the first moment, he 
had witnessed this rout, presenting a bold front to dan- 
ger. Why, then, this noise? Was it not Daigremont’s 
troops arriving? Then, when he had heard the quota- 
tions collapse, though not able to explain the cause of the 
disaster, he had stiffened himself up to die standing. An 
icy coldness rose from the ground to his skull; he had 
the feeling of the irreparable, it was his defeat forever ; 
and the base regret for money, the wrath over lost enjoy- 


MONEY. 


359 


ments, went for nothing in his grief : he bled only at his 
humiliation of a conquered man, at the victory of Gun- 
dermann, dazzling, definitive, which once more consoli- 
dated the omnipotence of this king of gold. At that 
moment he was really superb, all his slight person braved 
destiny, without a palpitation of his eyes, his face stub- 
bornly set, standing alone against the flood of despair and 
resentment which he already felt rising against him. The 
entire hall boiled and surged toward his pillar ; fists 
clenched, mouths stammered evil words, and he kept upon 
his lips an unconscious smile, which might have been 
taken for a challenge. 

First, amid a sort of fog, he distinguished Maugendre, 
with a mortal pallor on his face, whom Captain Chave 
was taking away on his arm, repeating to him that he had 
predicted it, with the cruelty of a petty gambler delighted 
at seeing the big speculators come to grief. Then there 
was Sédille, with face contracted, and the crazy air of a 
merchant whose house is falling, who came to give him 
an unsteady shake of the hand, like a good man, as if to 
say to him that he bore him no grudge. At the first 
crack the Marquis de Bohain had separated himself, pass- 
ing over to the triumphant army of the bears, telling 
Kolb, who also held prudently aloof, what disagreeable 
doubts this Saccard had inspired in him ever since the 
last stockholders’ meeting. Jantrou, bewildered, had dis- 
appeared again, on the run, to carry the last quotation to 
the Baroness Sandorff, who surely would have a nervous 
attack in her coupé, as was generally the case on days 
when she lost largely. And there also, facing Salmon 
always silent and enigmatical, stood the bear Moser and 
the bull Pillerault : the latter provoking, with a proud 
mien, in spite of his ruin ; the other, who had made a for- 
tune, spoiling his victory with remote anxieties. 

« You will see that in the spring we shall have war with 
Germany. All these things have no pleasant odor, and 
Bismarck is watching us.” 

“ Oh ! give us a rest ! Again I have made the mistake 
of reflecting too much. So much the worse ! I must 
begin over again, all will go well. 


360 


MONEY. 


So far Saccard had not weakened. The name of Fay- 
eux, uttered behind his back, the dividend-collector in 
Vendôme, with whom he was in relation in behalf of 
numerous petty stockholders, had caused him a feeling 
of uneasiness, by reminding him of the enormous mass of 
miserable little capitalists who would be crushed under 
the ruins of the Universal. But suddenly the sight of 
Dejoie, with a livid and distorted face, acutely intensified 
this uneasiness, by personifying all the humble and lam- 
entable ruins in this poor man whom he knew. At the 
same time, by a sort of hallucination, there rose before 
him the pale and desolate faces of the Countess de Beau- 
villiers and her daughter, who looked at him in bewilder- 
ment out of their large eyes filled with tears. And at 
that moment, Saccard, this corsair with a heart tanned 
by twenty years of brigandage, Saccard, whose pride it 
was that he had never felt a trembling in his legs, that he 
had never sat down upon the bench, which stood there, 
against the pillar, — Saccard felt a sinking sensation, and 
had to drop upon the bench for a moment. The crowd 
still surged, threatening to stifle him. He lifted his head, 
feeling a need of air ; and straightway he had risen, rec- 
ognizing above, looking down upon the hall from the 
telegraphers’ gallery, the Méchain, who dominated the 
battle-field with her fat, enormous person. Her old black 
leather bag lay beside her, on the stone balustrade. 
While waiting to stuff it with the depreciated shares, she 
was watching the dead, like a voracious raven who follows 
financial armies, until the day of massacre. 

Then Saccard, with a firm step, went away. His whole 
being seemed empty to him ; but, by an extraordinary 
effort of his will, he advanced, solid and erect. Only, his 
senses appeared to be dulled ; he no longer had the sen- 
sation of the ground, but thought he was walking on a 
soft woollen carpet. Similarly a mist drowned his eyes, 
and a buzz filled his ears. As he left the Bourse and de- 
scended the steps, he no longer recognized people ; these 
were floating phantoms that surrounded him, vague 
forms, lost sounds. Did he not see the broad, grimacing 
face of Busch pass him ? Had he not stopped for a mo- 


MONEY. 


361 


ment to talk with Nathansohn, very much at his ease, 
and whose weakened voice seemed to him to come from 
a distance? Did not Sabatani and Massias accompany 
him, amid the general consternation? Again he saw 
himself in the middle of a numerous group, perhaps Sé- 
dille and Maugendre again, all sorts of faces melting away 
in a transformation. And as he was about to move away, 
and lose himself in the rain, in the liquid mud in which 
Paris was submerged, he repeated in a shrill voice to all 
this world of phantoms, putting his last glory into this 
exhibition of his liberty of mind : 

« Ah ! how sorry I am about that camélia which was 
forgotten in my yard, and which the cold has killed ! 


XL 


Madame Caroline, frightened, sent that very night a 
despatch to her brother, who was to be in Rome another 
week; and, three days after, Hamelin arrived at Paris, 
hastening to the scene of danger. 

There was a severe explanation between Saccard and 
the engineer, at the Rue Saint-Lazare, in that work-room 
where formerly the enterprise had been discussed and 
resolved upon with so much enthusiasm. During the 
three days the break-up at the Bourse had been terribly 
aggravated, the Universal stock had fallen, stroke after 
stroke, until it was now below par, at four hundred and 
thirty francs ; and the decline continued, the edifice was 
cracking and crumbling, from hour to hour. 

Madame Caroline listened silently, careful not to inter- 
vene. She was full of remorse, for she accused herself 
of complicity, since it was she who, after having promised 
herself that she would watch, had let everything go on. 
Instead of simply contenting herself with selling her 
shares, in order to obstruct the rise, ought she not to 
have taken some other step, warned people, in short, 
acted ? In her adoration for her brother, her heart bled 
at seeing him thus compromised, amid his grand tasks 
shattered, the whole work of his life again in question ; 
and she suffered the more, because she no longer felt her- 
self free to judge Saccard : had she not loved him, was 
she not his, by that secret bond, the shame of which she 
now felt more than ever? Placed thus between these 
two men, she was torn by a combat. The evening of the 
catastrophe she had overwhelmed Saccard in a fine out- 
burst of frankness, emptying her heart of the reproaches 
and fears which had been so long heaping up within it. 
Then, on seeing him smile, tenacious, unconquered in 


MONEY. 


3<$3 


spite of everything, and on reflecting upon the strength 
that he must need in order to remain erect, she had said 
to herself that she had no right, after her own weakness 
with him, to finish him, to thus strike him to the earth. 
And taking refuge in silence, bringing only the blame of 
her attitude, she wished to be a simple witness. 

But Hamelin this time became angry, he who was usu- 
ally so conciliatory, unconcerned in everything that was 
not a part of his work. He attacked gambling with ex- 
treme violence; the Universal had succumbed to the 
mania for gambling, a crisis of absolute madness. Un- 
doubtedly he was not one of those who pretend that a 
bank can allow its stock to fall, like a railway company, 
for instance : the railway company has its immense plant, 
which brings in its receipts, whereas the real plant of a 
bank is its credit ; its death-agony begins when its credit 
totters. Only there was a question of moderation here. 
Though it was necessary and even wise to maintain the 
quotation of two thousand francs, it became madness and 
utter criminality to push it further, to try to impose it at 
three thousand and more. On his arrival he had de- 
manded the truth, the whole truth. They cou d no longer 
lie to him now, and declare to him, as he had allowed them 
to declare in his presence at the last stockholders meeting, 
that the Society did not possess one of its shares. 1 he 
books were there ; he easily penetrated these lies Take 
the Sabatani account, for instance ; he knew that this 
prête-nom concealed operations carried on by the Society, 
and he could follow there, month by month, for two years, 
the growing fever of Saccard, at first timid, buying only 
with prudence, then pushed on to larger and larger pur- 
chases arriving finally at the enormous figure of twenty- 
seven thousand shares costing nearly forty-eight millions. 
Was it not madness, an imprudent folly which seemed 
mock at people, such a figure under the name of a Sa- 
batani ! And this Sabatani was not the only one; there 
were other men of straw, employees of the bank, directors 
even whose purchases for cash, carried to the account of 
the reports, exceeded twenty thousand shares, represent- 
ing these also, nearly forty-eight millions. And finally 


3^4 


MONEY. 


all these were only the obligatory purchases, to which 
must be added the time purchases, effected in the course 
of the last liquidation of January, more than twenty 
thousand shares for a sum of sixty-seven millions, which 
the Universal had bound itself to accept; to say nothing 
of ten thousand other shares, at the Lyons Bourse, mak- 
ing twenty-four millions more. Which showed, by an 
addition of the whole, that the Society had in hand nearly 
a fourth of the shares which it had issued, and that it had 
paid for these shares the frightful sum of two hundred 
millions. There was the gulf in which it had been swal- 
lowed up. 

Tears of grief and anger had risen to Hamelin’s eyes. 
He who had just laid so happily, at Rome, the founda- 
tions of his great Catholic bank, the Treasury of the Holy 
Sepulchre, which would permit, in the approaching days 
of persecution, the royal installation of the Pope in Jeru- 
salem, in the legendary glory of the holy places ; a bank 
destined to put the new kingdom of Palestine beyond the 
reach of political disturbances, by placing its budget, with 
a guarantee of the resources of the country, on a series of 
issues which the Christians of the entire world would vie 
with each other in taking up; And all this fell at one 
stroke, in this imbecile madness of gambling! He had 
gone away leaving an admirable balance-sheet, a society 
rolling in millions, with a prosperity so great and achieved 
so speedily that it was the wonder of the world ; and, less 
than a month afterward, when he came back, the millions 
had melted away, the society was prostrate, reduced to 
dust, leaving nothing but a black hole, which seemed to 
have been swept by fire. His stupefaction increased ; he 
violently demanded explanations, wished to understand 
what mysterious power had driven Saccard to wage this 
furious warfare upon the colossal edifice which he had 
built, to destroy it, stone by stone, on the one hand, while 
he pretended to finish it upon the other. 

Saccard answered, very frankly, and without anger 
After the first hours of emotion and annihilation, he had 
recovered himself, standing erect and firm, with his in- 
domitable hope. Tieasons had rendered the catastrophe 


MONEY. 


365 

terrible, but nothing was lost, he was going to retrieve 
everything. And besides, if the Universal had enjoyed 
such swift and great prosperity, did it not owe it to the 
methods with which they now reproached him ? The 
creation of the syndicate, the successive additions to the 
capital, the advance balance-sheet of the last budget, the 
shares kept by the society, and later the shares bought en 
masse , wildly. All these things were connected. If they 
accepted the success, the risks must be accepted also. 
Sometimes, when a machine is overheated, it bursts. For 
the rest, he confessed no fault ; he had simply done, more 
intelligently and vigorously, what every bank manager . 
does ■ and he did not abandon his idea of genius, this 
giant idea, of repurchasing all the shares and striking down 
Gundermann. Money had been lacking that was all. 
Now they must begin over again. A special stockholders 
meeting had just been called for the following Monday ; 
he said that he was absolutely certain of his stockholders ; 
he would obtain from them the indispensable sacrifices, 
convinced that, at a word from him, all would bring their 
fortunes. In the mean time they could live, thanks to the 
little sums which the other houses of credit, the great 
banks, advanced every morning for the pressing needs of 
the day, through fear of a too sudden crash which would 
have shattered them also. The crisis over, all would be 
rpqnmed as resplendent as ever. 

« But ’’’ objected Hamelin, already calmed by this smil- 
ing tranquillity, “ do you not see in this aid furnished by 
our rivals a tactics, a design of securing themselves first, 
and then rendering our fall more complete, by delaying 
it ? What disturbs me is to see Gundermann s hand in 

lt j n fact, Gundermann had been one of the first to offer 
aid in order to avoid the immediate declaration of bank- 
ruptcy, with the extraordinary practical sense of a man 

who after setting fire to his neighbor s house, hastens to 
Krincr buckets of water, in order that the entire neighbor- 
hood may not be destroyed. He was above resentment ; 
hehacT no other glory than that of being the first money- 
merchant of the world, the richest and the most prudent, 


366 


MONEY. 


having succeeded in sacrificing all his passions to the con- 
tinuous increase of his fortune. 

Saccard made a gesture of impatience, exasperated by 
this proof which the conqueror gave of his sagacity and 
of his intelligence. 

“ Oh ! Gundermann ! he is playing the great-souled 
man ; he thinks that he stabs me with his generosity.” 

A silence ensued, broken at last by Madame Caroline, 
who so far had remained dumb. 

“ My friend, I have allowed my brother to speak to 
you as he was bound to speak, in the legitimate grief 
which he has felt, on learning of all these deplorable 
things. But our situation, his and mine, seems to me 
clear ; it seems to me impossible, does it not ? that he 
should be compromised if the affair should turn out dis- 
astrously. You know at what rate I have sold ; they 
cannot say that he has stimulated the rise, in order to 
get a . larger profit from his shares. And besides, if the 
catastrophe comes, we know what we have to do. I confess 
that I do not share your stubborn hope. Nevertheless, 
you are right ; it is necessary to struggle to the last min- 
ute, and it is not my brother who will discourage you, 
you may be sure.” 

She was agitated, again filled with toleration for this 
man, so obstinately tenacious, unwilling nevertheless to 
show this weakness, for she could no longer blind herself 
to the execrable task which he had performed, with his 
thieving passion of an unscrupulous corsair. 

“ Certainly,” declared Hamelin, in his turn, weary and 
at the end of his resistance, “ I am not going to para- 
lyze you, when you are fighting to save us all. Count on 
me, if I can be useful to you.” 

And once more, at this last hour, under the most 
frightful dangers, Saccard reassured them, reconquered 
them, leaving them with these words, full of promise and 
mystery : 

“ Sleep easy. I cannot say more, but I am absolutely 
certain of setting everything afloat again before the end 
of another week.” 

This phrase, which he did not explain, he repeated to 


MONEY. 


367 

all the friends of the house, to all the customers who 
came, frightened, terrified, to ask him for advice. For 
three days there had been a continuous gallop through his 
office, at the Rue de Londres. The Beauvilliers, the 
Maugendres, Sédille, Dejoie, came running in succession. 
He received them very calmly, with a military air, speak- 
ing vibrating words which restored courage to their 
hearts ; and when they talked of selling, of realizing at a 
loss, he became angry, and loudly told them not to do 
anything so stupid, promising upon his honor to restore 
the price of two thousand and even three thousand francs. 
In spite of the mistakes that had been made, all kept a 
blind faith in him : if they would let him alone, leave him 
free to rob them again, he would clear up everything, 
and finally enrich them all, as he had sworn to do. If no 
accident happened before Monday, if they would give 
him time to hold the special stockholders’ meeting, no 
one doubted that he would bring the Universal safe and 
sound out of its ruins. 

Saccard had thought of his brother Rougon, and this 
was the omnipotent aid of which he spoke, unwilling to 
explain himself more definitely. Having met Daigre- 
mont, the traitor, face to face, and bitterly reproached 
him, he had obtained only this reply : “ Why, my dear 

fellow, it is not I who have dropped you, it is your 
brother! ” Evidently this man was in his right: he had 
gone into the affair only on condition that Rougon should 
be in it, they had formally promised him Rougon ; then 
there was nothing astonishing that he should retire, from 
the moment that the minister, far from being in it, en- 
tered upon a war with the Universal and its manager. 
It was at least an excuse to which there was no reply. 
Very much struck, Saccard then felt his immense mis- 
take in thus falling out with his brother, who alone could 
defend him, make him so far sacred that no one would 
dare to finish his ruin if it were known that the great 
man was behind him. And it was one of the severest 
moments for his pride when he had to make up his mind 
to ask the deputy Huret to intervene in his favor. For 
the rest, he maintained a threatening attitude, still refused 


368 


MONEY, 


to disappear, demanded as something due him the aid of 
Rougon, who had more interest than he in avoiding scan- 
dal. The next day, when waiting Huret’s promised visit, 
he simply received a note, in which he was told, in vague 
terms, not to be impatient, and to rely upon a satisfac- 
tory issue, if subsequent circumstances should not make 
it impossible. He contented himself with these few lines, 
which he regarded as a promise of neu trality. 

But the truth was that Rougon had just resolved upon 
the energetic course of ending with this gangrened mem- 
ber of his family, who for years had embarrassed him, 
with perpetual terrors of unclean accidents, and whom he 
preferred at last to cut off violently. If the catastrophe 
came, he was determined to let things take their course. 
Since Saccard would never consent to voluntarily exile 
himself, was it not the simplest way to force him to ex- 
patriate himself by facilitating his flight after some severe 
sentence? A sudden scandal, a sweep of the broom, and 
all would be ended. Moreover, the situation of the min- 
ister was becoming difficult since he had declared in the 
chamber, in a memorable outburst of eloquence, that 
never would France allow Italy to take possession of 
Rome. Loudly applauded by the Catholics, severely 
attacked by the more and more powerful Third Estate, he 
saw the hour approaching when the latter, aided by the 
liberal Bonapartists, would drive him from power if he 
did not give it also a guarantee. And the guarantee was 
to be the abandonment of this Universal patronized by 
Rome, which had become a disturbing force. Finally, 
what clinched his decision was a secret communication 
from his colleague, the minister of finance, who, on the 
point of launching a loan, had found Gundermann and 
all the Jewish bankers holding off, giving him to under- 
stand that they would refuse their capital as long as the 
market should remain uncertain, given over to adventures. 
Gundermann triumphed. Better the Jews, with their 
accepted royalty of gold, than the Ultramontane Catho- 
lics, masters of the world, if they should become the 
kings of the Bourse. 

It was related afterwards that the keeper of the seals. 


MONEY. 


369 

Delcambre, furious for revenge against Saccard, having 
sounded Rougon as to the course to be pursued in rela- 
tion to his brother in case justice should be obliged to 
intervene, had simply received this heart-felt cry : “Ah! 
if he will only rid me of his presence, I shall owe him a 
famous candle ! ” So, from the moment when Rougon 
abandoned him, Saccard was lost. Delcambre, who had 
been watching him ever since his arrival at power, held 
him at last on the margin of the Code, on the very edge 
of the vast judicial net, having only to find a pretèxt to 
launch the gendarmes and the judges upon him. 

One morning Busch, furious at not having yet acted, 
went to the Palais de Justice. If he did not make haste, 
never would he get from Saccard the four thousand francs 
still due to the Méchain on the little Victor’s famous bill 
of expenses. His plan was simply to raise an abominable 
scandal by accusing him of sequestrating the child, which 
would permit him to spread before the world the unclean 
details of the violation of the mother and the abandonment 
of the child. Such a prosecution instituted against the 
manager of the Universal, amid the excitement created 
by the crisis through which this bank was passing, would 
certainly stir all Paris; and Busch still hoped that Saccard 
would pay at the first threat. But the deputy attorney- 
general who received him, a nephew of Delcambre, list- 
ened to his story with an air of impatience and weariness : 
no ! no ! there was nothing serious to be accomplished 
with such gossip ; it did not come under any article of the 
Code. Disconcerted, Busch became angry, and talked of 
his long patience, when the magistrate suddenly inter- 
rupted him on hearing him say that he had pushed his 
good-nature in relation to Saccard so far as to place funds 
en report at the Universal. What! he had funds com- 
promised in the certain discomfiture of this house, and he 
did not act ! Nothing was simpler ; he had only to pre- 
fer a charge of swindling, for now justice was warned of 
the fraudulent operations that were going to bring on 
bankruptcy. This was the terrible blow to strike, and not 
the other story, the melodrama of a girl who had died in 
drunkenness and of a child who had grown up in the gut- 


370 


MONEY. 


ter. Busch listened, with an attentive and serious face, 
launched upon this new path, dragged into an act which 
he had not come to perform, but whose decisive conse- 
quences he foresaw, Saccard arrested, the Universal dealt 
its death-blow. The simple fear of losing his money 
would have decided him directly. Moreover he asked 
only disasters, that he might fish in the troubled waters. 
Nevertheless he hesitated, he said that he would reflect, 
that he would return ; and the deputy attorney-general 
had to force the pen into his fingers and make him write 
there, in his office, on his desk, the complaint of a swin- 
dle which, the man dismissed, he carried immediately, 
boiling over with zeal, to his uncle, the keeper of the seals. 
The affair was clinched. 

The next day, at the office of the society in the Rue de 
Londres, Saccard had a long interview with the auditors 
and with the judicial director, in order to draw up the 
balance-sheet which he desired to present to the stock- 
holders’ meeting. In spite of the sums advanced by other 
financial establishments, they had had to close the wickets 
and suspend payments, in view of the increasing demands. 
This bank which, a month before, possessed nearly two 
hundred millions in its vaults, had not been able to pay 
to its distracted customers more than the first few hun- 
dred thousand francs. A judgment of the tribunal of 
commerce had officially declared the bankruptcy, after a 
summary report made the day before by an expert, who 
had been charged with an examination of the books. In 
spite of everything, Saccard, seemingly unconscious, still 
promised to save the situation, showing a blind hope and 
an extraordinary obstinacy of bravery. And on that very 
day he was awaiting the reply from the stockbrokers’ sta- 
tion, fixing a rate of compensation, when the usher en- 
tered to tell him that three gentlemen desired to see him 
in an adjoining room. Perhaps this was salvation ; he 
rushed out, gayly ; and there he found a commissio ner of 
police, accompanied by two officers, who proceeded to his 
immediate arrest. The warrant had just been issued, on 
the strength of the expert’s report, pointing out irregular^ 
ities in the accounts, and especially on the charge of abuse 


MONEY. 


371 

of confidence preferred by Busch, who pretended that 
funds which he had entrusted to the Universal, to be 
placed en report , had been otherwise disposed of. At the 
same hour Hamelin was likewise arrested, at his residence, 
in the Rue Saint-Lazare. This time it was really the end! 
as if all hatreds, and all mischances as well, had centred 
in a furious attack. The special stockholders’ meeting 
could not be held ; the Universal Bank had lived. 

Madame Caroline was not at home at the time of the 
arrest of her brother, who could only leave for her a few 
hastily-written lines. When she returned, she was stupe- 
fied. Never had she believed that they would think even 
for a minute of prosecuting him, so pure of all doubtful 
traffic did he seem to her, acquitted by his long periods 
of absence. On the day after the bankruptcy, both 
brother and sister had stripped themselves of all that 
they possessed, to swell the assets, desiring to go out of 
this adventure as naked as they had entered it ; and the 
amount was large, nearly eight millions, in which were swal- 
lowed up the three hundred thousand francs which they 
had inherited from an aunt. Directly she started out on 
errands of solicitation, taking all possible steps ; now she 
lived only to soften the lot and prepare the defence of her 
poor Georges, bursting into tears, in spite of her valor, 
whenever she thought of him, innocent, behind the bars, 
spattered with this frightful scandal, his life devastated 
and soiled forever. He, so gentle, so weak, childish in 
his devotion, a “ perfect simpleton,” as she said, outside 
of his technical tasks. And, at first, she was angry with 
Saccard, the sole cause of the disaster, the creator of 
their misfortune, whose execrable work she reconstructed 
and clearly judged, from the days of the beginning, when 
he had joked her so gayly on reading the Code, to these 
days of the end, when, in the severities of failure, all the 
irregularities which she had foreseen and allowed to be 
committed must be paid for. Then, tortured by this re- 
morse of complicity which haunted her, she accused her- 
self; she tried not to openly concern herself with him, 
determined to act as if he were not in existence. And 
when she had to pronounce his name, she seemed to 


372 


MONEY. 


speak of a stranger, of an opponent whose interests were 
different from their own. She, who visited her brother at 
the Conciergerie almost every day, had not even asked 
for a permit to see Saccard. And she was very brave ; she 
still maintained her place in her apartments in the Rue 
Saint-Lazare, receiving all who presented themselves, 
even those who came with insults on their lips, thus trans- 
formed into a woman of business, resolved to save what 
she could of their honesty and their happiness. 

During the long days which she passed in this way, up- 
stairs, in that work-room where she had spent such beau- 
tiful hours of labor and of hope, one spectacle especially 
distressed her. When she approached a window and cast 
a glance at the neighboring mansion, she could not wit- 
ness without a wringing of her heart the pale profiles of 
the Countess de Beauvilliers and her daughter Alice, be- 
hind the window-panes of the little room in which the 
two poor women lived. These February days were very 
mild ; she often noticed them also walking slowly, and 
with drooping heads, through the paths of the moss-grown 
garden, ravaged by winter. The results of the crash had 
been frightful in these two lives. The unhappy women 
who, a fortnight before, possessed eighteen hundred 
thousand francs with their six hundred shares, could get 
only eighteen thousand for them, now that the price had 
fallen from three thousand francs to thirty francs. And 
their entire fortune had melted, swept away at one stroke : 
the twenty thousand francs of the dowry, so painfully 
saved up by the Countess, the seventy thousand francs 
borrowed at first upon the Aublets, the Aublets them- 
selves then sold for two hundred and forty thousand 
francs when they were worth four hundred thousand. 
What was to become of them when the mortgages w r ith 
which their house was crushed alone consumed eight 
thousand francs a year, and when they had never been 
able to reduce their style of living below seven thousand, 
in spite of their shabbiness, the miracles of sordid econ- 
omy which they accomplished, to save appearances and 
keep their station. Even if they were to sell their stock, 
how could they live henceforth, how face all their needs’ 


MONEY* 


373 

With these eighteen thousand francs, the last waif of the 
shipwreck ? A necessity imposed itself, which the Countess 
had not yet been willing to resolutely confront : to leave 
the mansion, to abandon it to the mortgagees, since it had 
become impossible to pay the interest, and not to wait 
for the latter to advertise its sale, but to retire straight- 
way to some small apartments, there to live a straitened 
and restricted life, down to the last morsel of bread. But, 
if the Countess resisted, it was because this meant a 
plucking out of her whole person, the very death of what 
she had believed to be the undermining of the edifice 
of her race which for years she had sustained wïth her 
trembling hands, with heroic obstinacy. The Beauvilliers 
tenants, no longer living under the ancestral roof, dwell- 
ing in the houses of others, in the confessed misery of the 
conquered: really, would not that be to die of shame? 
And she struggled always. 

One morning Madame Caroline saw these ladies wash- 
ing their linen under the little shed in the garden. The 
old cook, almost powerless, was no longer of much aid to 
them ; during the late cold weather they had had to take 
care of her; and it was the same with the husband, at 
once porter, coachman, and valet de chambre , who had 
great difficulty in sweeping the house and in keeping the 
stumbling old horse upon his feet, worn out like himself. 
So these ladies had set resolutely about their housework, 
the daughter sometimes dropping her water-colors to 
make the thin soups upon which the four persons scantily 
lived, the mother dusting the furniture and mending their 
garments and shoes, with that idea of petty economy that 
they saved in dusters, needles, and thread now that she 
handled these herself. But, as soon as a visitor called, it 
was a sight to see both of them run, throw off their aprons, 
violently wash themselves, and re-appear as mistress of 
the house, with white and idle hands. On the street their 
style of living had not changed, their honor was safe : the 
coupé still went out with the horse properly harnessed, 
taking the Countess and her daughter on their errands ; 
the fortnightly dinners still assembled the guests of every 
winter, not a dish less upon the table, not a candle less in 


374 


MONEY. 


the candelabra. And it was necessary to command a 
view of the garden, as Madame Caroline did, to know 
what terrible to-morrows of fasting paid for all this show, 
this lying façade of a vanished fortune. When she saw 
them in the depths of this damp pit, strangled between 
the neighboring houses, promenading their mortal melan- 
choly, under the greenish skeletons of the centenarian 
trees, she was filled with an immense pity, and went away 
from the window, her heart torn with remorse, as if she 
felt herself Saccard’s accomplice in this misery. 

Then, another morning, Madame Caroline had a sorrow 
more direct and grievous still. She was informed of 
Dejoie’s presence, and she bravely determined to see him. 

“Well, my poor Dejoie”. . . 

But she stopped, frightened, as she noticed the pallor 
on the old janitor’s face. His eyes seemed dead, his 
features distorted, and his very tall figure had shrunk, as 
if bent double. 

“ Come, you must not be discouraged, I still hope that 
all this money is not lost.” 

Then he spoke, in a slow voice : 

“ Oh ! Madame, it isn’t that. Undoubtedly, at the first 
moment, that was a hard blow, because I had accustomed 
myself to believe that we were rich. It goes to one’s 
head, one feels as if drunk, when one is winning. My 
God ! I was already to go to work again ; I would have 
worked so hard that I should have succeeded in getting 
the sum together again. But you do not know”. . . 

Big tears rolled down his cheeks. 

“You do not know. She is gone.” 

Gone, who ? asked Madame Caroline, in surprise. 

“ Nathalie, my daughter. Her marriage had failed ; 
she was furious when Théodore’s father came to tell us 
that his son had waited too long, and that he was going 
to marry the daughter of a haberdasher, who brought 
nearly eight thousand francs. Oh ! I can understand her 
anger at the thought of no longer having a sou and re- 
maining single. But I who loved her so well ! Only last 
winter I used to get up at night to see if she were well 
covered. And I went without tobacco that she might 


MONEY. 


375 


have prettier hats, and I was her real mother, I had 
brought her up, I lived only in the pleasure of seeing her 
in our little rooms." 

His tears choked him ; he sobbed. 

“You see, it was the fault of my ambition. If I had 
sold as soon as my eight shares had given me the dowry of 
six thousand francs, she would have married at that time. 
But, you know, it was still going up, and I thought of my- 
self ; I wanted first an income of six hundred francs, then 
eight hundred, then a thousand ; especially as the little 
one would have inherited this money later. To think 
that at one time, at the price of three thousand, I had in 
my hand twenty-four thousand francs, with which to give 
her a dowry of six thousand and retire myself with an in- 
come of nine hundred ! No ! I wanted a thousand ; how 
stupid ! And now that does not represent even two hun- 
dred francs. Oh ! it was my fault ; I should have done 
better to jump into the water.” 

Madame Caroline, very much agitated by his grief, 
allowed him to relieve himself. Still, she was desirous of 
knowing. 

“ Gone, my poor Dejoie, how gone ? ” 

Then he felt an embarrassment, while a slight redness 
rose to his pale face. 

“Yes, gone, disappeared, three days ago. She had 
made the acquaintance of a man who lived opposite us, 
oh ! a very good-looking man, about forty years old. In 
short, she has run away.” 

And while he gave details, hunting for the proper 
words, his tongue embarrassed, Madame Caroline again 
saw Nathalie, slender and blonde, with her frail grace of a 
pretty girl of the Parisian pavements. Especially she 
saw again her large eyes, with their look so tranquil and 
so cold, an extraordinary clearness of egoism. She had 
suffered her father to adore her, as a happy idol, prudent 
as long as it was for her interest to be so, incapable of a 
stupid fall as long as she hoped for a dowry, a marriage, 
a counter in some little shop where she would be en- 
throned. But to continue a penniless life, to live in rags 
with her good old father, obliged to go to work again, oh ! 


376 


MONEY. 


no, she had had enough of this not very pleasant exist- 
ence, thenceforth without hope ! And she had departed ; 
she had coldly put on her hat and boots to go elsewhere. 

“ My God ! ” Dejoie continued to stammer, “ there was 
little to amuse her at our home, it is true ; and when one 
is pretty, it is provoking to waste one’s youth in weary 
waiting. But all the same she has been very hard. Just 
think! without bidding me good-bye, not a word of a let- 
ter, not the smallest promise to come to see me again 
from time to time. She has closed the door, and that is 
the end. You see, my hands tremble, I am left like a 
beast. It is more than I can stand ; I am always looking 
for her at our home. After so many years, my God ! is 
it possible that I have her no more, that I shall never 
have her more, my poor little child ? ” 

He had ceased to weep, and his distracted grief was so 
distressing that Madame Caroline seized both his hands, 
finding no other consolation than to keep repeating : 

“ My poor Dejoie, my poor Dejoie.” . . . 

Then, to turn his attention, she came back to the ruin 
of the Universal. She had excused herself for allowing 
him to take stock ; she severely judged Saccard, without 
naming him. But straightway the old janitor roused up. 
Bitten by gambling, the passion was still with him. 

“ Monsieur Saccard, oh! he did quite right to keep me 
from selling. It was a superb affair; we should have 
eaten them all, but for the traitors who dropped us. 

Madame, if Monsieur were here, things would go 
differently. It was our death-blow when they threw him 
into prison. And only he can save us. I told the judge 
so : ‘ Monsieur, restore him to us, and I confide to him 
again my fortune, and I confide to him my life, because 
this man is the good God, you see! He does whatever 
he likes. 

Stupefied, Madame Caroline looked at him What T 
not a word of anger, not a reproach ? This was the ar- 
dent faith of a believer. What powerful influence, then, 
had Saccard had upon the troop, in order to discipline it 
under such a yoke of credulity ? 

“ In fact, Madame, I came only to tell you that, and 


MONEY. 


3 77 


you must excuse me if I have spoken to you of my own 
sorrow, because my head isn’t very solid now. When 
you see Monsieur Saccard, be sure to tell him that we are 
always with him.” 

He went away with his unsteady step, and, left alone, 
she felt for a moment a horror of existence. This poor 
man had broken her heart ; against the other, against the 
man whom she* did not name, she felt redoubled anger, 
the outburst of which she repressed within her. How- 
ever, other visitors had arrived ; she was over-run that 
morning. 

In the flood, the Jordans especially agitated her still 
further. They came, Paul and Marcelle, like a good 
household who always ventured upon serious proceedings 
together, to ask her if their parents, the Maugendres, had 
really nothing more to get from their Universal stock. 
In this direction, too, there was an irreparable disaster. 
Before the great battles of the last two liquidations, the 
old awning manufacturer already possessed seventy-five 
shares, which had cost him about eighty thousand francs: 
a superb affair, since, at one time, at the rate of three 
thousand francs, these shares represented two hundred 
and twenty-five thousand. But the terrible part was 
that, in the passion of the struggle, he had played with- 
out depositing security, believing in Saccard’s genius, 
always buying, so that the frightful balances to be paid, 
more than two hundred thousand francs, had just swept 
away the rest of his fortune, that income of fifteen thou- 
sand francs accumulated by thirty years of hard work. 
He had nothing left ; scarcely would he be able to go out 
completely free from debt, after selling his little residence 
in the Rue Legendre, of which he was so proud. And in 
this disaster Madame Maugendre was certainly guiltier 
than he. 

“Ah! Madame,” explained Marcelle, with her charming 
face, which even amid catastrophes remained fresh and 
laughing, •“ you cannot imagine how Mamma had changed ! 
She, so prudent, so economical, the terror of her servants, 
always at their heels, scanning their accounts, had reached 
the point where she talked only of hundreds of thou- 


MONEY. 


378 

sands of francs ; she urged on Papa, oh ! he was much 
less brave, all ready to listen to Uncle Chave, if she had 
not made him crazy, with her dream of capturing the 
capital prize, the million. The fever first caught them 
through reading the financial journals; and Papa was the 
first to get it, and tried to hide it in the beginning; then, 
when it seized Mamma, who had so long professed a good 
housewife’s hatred for all gambling, everything blazed up, 
it has not been long. Is it possible that the rage for 
gain so changes worthy people ? ” 

Jordan intervened, being amused himself by the face 
of Uncle Chave, which a word spoken by his wife had just 
called up. 

“And if you had seen Uncle’s calmness amid these 
catastrophes ! He had told them so; he triumphed, stiff 
in his choker. Not a day has he failed at the Bourse, not 
a day has he ceased to play his petty game, for cash, sat 
isfied to carry away his fifteen or twenty francs every 
evening, like a good employee who has faithfully done 
his day’s work. Around him millions were falling on all 
sides, giant fortunes made and unmade in two hours, gold 
raining by the bucketful amid the thunder-claps; and he 
continued, without fever, to make his little living, his little 
profit for his little vices. He is the shrewdest of the 
shrewd ; the pretty girls in the Rue Nolle.t have had their 
cakes and bonbons.” 

This good-humored allusion to the Captain’s farces 
finished the amusement of the two women. But imme- 
diately the sadness of the situation filled them again. 

“ Alas ! no,” declared Madame Caroline, “ I do not think 
that your parents have anything to get from their stock. 
All seems to me ended. The shares are at thirty francs, 
they will fall to twenty francs, to a hundred sous. My 
God ! the poor people, at their age, with their easy habits, 
what will become of them ?” 

“ Why ! ” answered Jordan, simply, “we shall have to 
look out for them. We are not very rich yet, but then 
things are beginning to march, and we shall not leave them 
in the street.” 

He had just had a piece of luck. After so many years 


MONEY. 


379 

of thankless labor, his first novel, published to begin with 
in a newspaper, and then in book form by a publisher, had 
suddenly taken on the proportions of a huge success ; and 
he found himself the wealthy possessor of several thou- 
sand francs, all doors thenceforth open before him, burn- 
ing to go to work again, certain of fortune and glory. 

“ If we cannot take them, we will hire a little suite of 
rooms for them. We shall arrange matters in some way.” 

Marcelle, who was looking at him with bewildered ten- 
derness, was agitated by a slight trembling. 

“ Oh ! Paul, Paul, how good you are ! ” 

And she began to sob. 

“ My child, calm yourself, I beg of you,” several 
times repeated Madame Caroline, who was astonished. 
“ You should not give yourself pain.” 

“ No, let me cry, it is not from pain. But really, it is 
all so stupid ! I ask you now, when I married Paul, if 
Mamma and Papa ought not to have given me the dowry 
of which they had always spoken. Under the pretext 
that Paul no longer had a sou, and that I was acting fool- 
ishly in keeping my promise just the same, they did not 
give us a centime. Ah ! they are well advanced to-day ! 
There would be at least my dowry which they could have, 
for that the Bourse would not have eaten ! ” 

Madame Caroline and Jordan could not help laughing, 
but that did not console Marcelle ; she cried the harder. 

“ And then, it is not only that. When Paul was poor, 
I had a dream. Yes ! as in the fairy tales, I dreamed that 
I was a princess, and that some day I should bring my 
ruined prince much, much money, to help him to be a 
great poet. And now he has no need of me, now I am 
nothing but a burden, with my family ! It is he who will 
have all the pain, it is he who will make all the presents. 
Ah ! how my heart stifles ! ” 

Quickly he had caught her in his arms. 

“ What are you talking about, you silly girl ? Does the 
wife need to bring anything? Why, it is yourself that 
you bring, your youth, your tenderness, your good-humor, 
and there is not a princess in the world that can give 
more.” 


380 


MONEY. 


Directly she became appeased, happy at being so loved, 
thinking indeed that it was very stupid of her to cry. He 
continued : 

“If your father and your mother are willing, we will 
get them a home at Clichy, where I have seen some first- 
floors, with gardens, at a very reasonable figure. At our 
home, in our little hole filled with our four pieces of fur- 
niture, it is very nice, but it is too small ; especially as we 
are going to need more room ”... 

And smiling again, turning toward Madame Caroline, 
who was much touched at the sight of this family scene : 

“ Oh ! yes, there are going to be three of us ; we may 
as well confess it, now that I am a man who makes his 
living ! Isn’t this a present, Madame, which she is going 
to make me, she who weeps at having brought me noth- 
ing?” 

Madame Caroline, in the incurable despair of her steril- 
ity, looked at Marcelle, who was blushing slightly, and 
whose already thickened waist she had not observed. 
Her eyes, in turn, filled with tears. 

“ Ah ! my dear children, love each other well ; you 
alone are reasonable, you alone are happy ! ” 

Then, before they took their leave, Jordan gave details 
about the newspaper, V Espérance. Gayly, with his in- 
stinctive horror of business, he spoke of it as the most 
extraordinary cavern, resounding with the hammers of 
speculation. The entire personnel , from the director 
down to the janitor, speculated, and he alone, he said 
with a laugh, had not gambled, being looked upon with 
disfavor on account of this, overwhelmed under the con- 
tempt of all. Moreover, the fall of the Universal, and es- 
pecially the arrest of Saccard, had fairly killed the jour- 
nal. There had been a scattering of the editors, though 
Jantrou stuck at his place, at bay, clinging to this waif, 
hoping to live still by the débris of the wreck. He was 
finished, these three years of prosperity had devastated 
him, in a monstrous abuse of everything that could be 
bought, like those starving people who die of indigestion 
on the day when they sit down to table. And the curious 
thing, though logical for that matter, was the final degra- 


MONEY. 


38l 

dation of the Baroness Sandorff, fallen to this man amid 
the confusion of the catastrophe, furious and wishing to 
recover her money. 

At the name of the Baroness, Madame Caroline had 
turned slightly pale, while Jordan, who did not know that 
the two women were rivals, finished his story. 

“ I do not know why she has given herself to him. 
Perhaps she thought that he could give her ‘ tips/ thanks 
to his position as an advertising agent. Perhaps she has 
rolled down to him simply by the laws of fall, ever lower 
and lower. In the passion for gambling there is a disor- 
ganizing ferment which I have often observed, which cor- 
rodes and rots everything, which makes of the creature 
of the highest and proudest race a human rag, the waste 
swept into the gutter. At any rate, if this wretch of a 
Jantrou had kept on his heart the kicks which, they say, 
the father of the Baroness used to give him when he 
formerly went to beg his orders, he surely has his revenge 
to-day ; for I who am speaking to you, having returned 
to the newspaper-office to try to get my pay, tumbled 
upon a scene by too suddenly pushing a door open ; I 
saw, with my own eyes I saw, Jantrou boxing the San- 
dorff’s ears. Oh ! that drunkard, ruined by alcohol and 
vices, thumping this lady of society with all the brutality 
of a coachman ! ” 

With a suffering gesture, Madame Caroline made him 
stop. It seemed to her that this excess of degradation 
bespattered herself. 

Very caressingly, Marcelle had taken her hand, on the 
point of starting. 

“ At least do not believe, dear Madame, that we came 
to annoy you. Paul, on the contrary, stoutly defends 
Monsieur Saccard.” 

“ Why, certainly,” cried the young man. “He has 
always been very good to me. I shall never forget the 
way in which he relieved us of that terrible Busch. And 
then, all the same, he is a very strong gentleman. When 
you see him, Madame, be sure to tell him that the little 
household is still deeply grateful to him.” 

When the Jordans had gone, Madame Caroline made 


382 


MONEY. 


a gesture of silent wrath. Grateful, why ? for the ruin of 
the Maugendres ! These Jordans were like Dejoie ; they 
went away with the same words of excuse and good 
wishes. And yet these knew ; this was not an ignorant 
man, this writer who had traversed the world of finance, 
filled with such a fine contempt for money. Within her 
the revolt continued and grew. No, there was no pardon 
possible, the mud was too deep. It did not avenge her 
that Jantrou had boxed the ears of the Baroness. It was 
Saccard who had rotted everything. 

On that day Madame Caroline was to go to Mazaud’s 
in regard to certain documents which she wished to add 
to her brother’s brief. She desired also to know what 
would be his attitude in case the defence should summon 
him as a witness. Her appointment with him was for 
four o’clock, after the Bourse ; and, alone at last, she 
spent more than an hour and a half in classifying the in- 
formation which she had obtained already. She was be- 
ginning to see clear in the heap of ruins. Similarly, on 
the day after a fire, when the smoke has vanished and the 
embers are extinct, one clears away the rubbish in the 
tenacious hope of finding the gold of the melted jewels. 

At first she had asked herself where the money could 
have gone. In this swallowing-up of two hundred mill- 
ions, if some pockets had emptied, others must have filled. 
Moreover, it seemed certain that the rake of the bears 
had not gathered in the whole sum ; a frightful leakage 
had carried away a good third. At the Bourse, on the 
days of catastrophe, they said that the soil drinks the 
money, it wanders away, a little sticks to all fingers. 
Gundermann alone must have pocketed fifty millions. 

Then came Daigremont, with twelve to fifteen. The 
Marquis de Bohain was cited also, whose classic stroke 
had once more succeeded : playing for a rise through 
Mazaud, he refused to pay, while receiving nearly two 
millions from Jacoby, through whom he had played fora 
fall ; only, this time, though knowing that the Marquis 
had transferred his property to his wife, like a simple 
sharper, Mazaud, bewildered by his losses, talked of tak- 
ing legal proceedings against him. Almost all the dp 


MONEY. 


383 


rectors of the Universal, moreover, had royally cut off 
their slice, some, like Huret and Kolb, realizing at a high 
figure, before the collapse, others, like the Marquis and 
Daigremont, going over to the bears, adopting the tactics 
of traitors ; to say nothing of the fact that at one of its 
last meetings, when the society was already in difficulties, 
the\board of directors had credited each of its members 
with a hundred and some thousand francs. Finally, at the 
corbeille , Delarocque and Jacoby especially were reputed 
to have personally won large sums, already swallowed up, 
however, in the two gulfs ever yawning and impossible 
to fill, dug for the first by the appetite for woman, and 
for the second by the passion for gambling. Likewise 
the report was current that Nathansohn had become one 
of the kings of the coulisse , thanks to a profit of three 
millions which he had realized by playing on his own ac- 
count for a fall, while playing for a rise for Saccard ; and 
the extraordinary feature of his luck was that he would 
certainly have failed, involved by considerable purchases 
in the name of the Universal, which no longer paid, if 
they had not been forced to make a pass of the sponge, 
and make a present of what it owed, more than a hun- 
dred millions, to the entire coulisse , admittedly insolvent. 
A decidedly lucky and clever man, this little Nathansohn! 
and what a pretty adventure, at which they smiled, to 
keep what one has gained, and not to pay what one has 
lost ! 

But the figures remained vague ; Madame Caroline 
could not arrive at an exact estimate of the gains, for the 
operations of the Bourse are carried on mysteriously, and 
professional secrecy is strictly guarded by the brokers. 
Even the memorandum-books would have told her noth- 
ing, the names not being inscribed on them. Thus she 
tried in vain to ascertain the sum which Sabatani must 
have carried away with him, disappearing after the last 
liquidation. Another ruin in this direction, which was a 
hard blow at Mazaud. It was the old story : the doubt- 
ful client welcomed at first with distrust, depositing a 
small security of two or three thousand francs, playing 
cautiously during the first months, until the day when, 


MONEY. 


384 

the insignificance of the guarantee having been forgotten, 
and the speculator having established friendly relations 
with the broker, he took flight on the day after some 
brigand’s trick. Mazaud talked of executing Sabatam, 
as he had formerly executed Schlosser, a sharper of the 
same band, of the eternal band which exploits the mar- 
ket, as the robbers of old times exploited a forest. And 
the Levantine, this Oriental lined with an Italian, with 
the velvet eyes, over whom all the women were crazy, 
had gone to infest the Bourse of some foreign capital, 
Berlin, they said, awaiting the time when he should be 
forgotten at the Bourse of Paris, and could come back 
again, welcomed, ready to repeat his stroke, amid general 
toleration. 

Then Madame Caroline had drawn up a list of the dis- 
asters. The catastrophe of the Universal had been one 
of those terrible shocks that shake a whole city. Noth- 
ing had remained upright and firm ; the cracks were 
lengthening in the neighboring houses, every day there 
were new crumblings. One after another the banks went 
down, with the sudden crash of sections of wall left stand- 
ing after a fire. In silent dismay they listened to these 
constant falls, and asked where the ruins would stop. 
But what struck her to the heart were not so much the 
bankers, the societies, the men and things of finance, de- 
stroyed and swept away in the tempest, as all the poor 
people, stockholders and even speculators, whom she had 
known and loved, and who were among the victims. 
After the defeat she counted her dead. And there were 
not only her poor Dejoie, the imbecile and lamentable 
Maugendres, the sad Beauvilliers ladies, so touching. 
Another tragedy had upset her, the failure of the silk 
manufacturer, Sédille, announced the day before. Hav- 
ing seen him at work as a director, the only one of the 
board, she said, to whom she would have entrusted ten 
sous, she declared him the most honest man in the world. 
What a frightful thing was this passion for gambling! A 
man who had spent thirty years in establishing by his 
labor and his honesty one of the solidest houses in Paris, 
and who, in less than three years, had so cut and eaten 


MONEY. 


385 


into it that, at one stroke, it had fallen into dust! What 
bitter regrets for the laborious days of former times, 
when he still believed in fortune made by a long effort, 
before a first chance gain had filled him with contempt 
for it, devoured by the dream of conquering at the 
Bourse, in an hour, the million which requires the whole 
lifetime of an honest merchant ! And the Bourse had 
swept away everything ; the unfortunate man remained 
overwhelmed, fallen, incapable of resuming business 
and disqualified to do so, with a son of whom pov- 
erty perhaps would make a swindler, this Gustave, the 
soul of joy and festivity, living on a footing of forty to 
fifty thousand francs of debts, already compromised in an 
ugly story of notes signed in favor of Germaine Cœur. 
Then there was still another poor devil who distressed 
Madame Caroline, the remisier Massias, and God knew 
whether she was usually tender toward these go-betweens 
of falsehood and theft ! Only she had known him also, 
with his large laughing eyes and his air of a good dog 
who has been whipped, when he was running about Paris 
to extract a few small orders. If, for a moment, he had 
believed himself at last, in his turn, one of the masters of 
the market, having violated chance, at Saccard’s heels, 
what a frightful fall had awakened him from his dream, 
prostrate on the earth, with broken back ! He owed sev- 
enty thousand francs, and he had paid, when he might 
have pleaded the gambling exception, as so many others 
did ; by borrowing from his friends and pledging his en- 
tire life, he had committed that sublime and useless stu- 
pidity of paying, for no one felt the kindlier toward him 
for it, they even shrugged their shoulders somewhat be- 
hind his back. He breathed resentment only against the 
Bourse, fallen back into his disgust for the dirty trade 
which he was following, shouting that one had to be a 
Jew to succeed at it, resigned nevertheless to remaining 
in it since he was in it, with the obstinate hope of winning 
the capital prize just the same, as long as he had a keen 
eye and a good pair of legs. 

But the unknown dead, the victims without a name, 
without a history, especially filled the heart of Madame 


386 


MONEY. 


Caroline with infinite pity. These were legion, strewn in 
the thickets by the roadside, in the ditches full of weeds, 
and thus there were lost bodies, the wounded in the an- 
guish of the death-agony, behind each tree-trunk. What 
frightful silent tragedies, the throng of the poor little 
capitalists, of the petty stockholders who had put all their 
savings into one stock, the retired janitors, the pale old 
maids living with a cat, the provincial pensioners follow- 
ing the regulated existence of maniacs, the country priests 
stripped by charities, all those little beings whose budget 
consists of a few sous, so much for milk, so much for 
bread, a budget so exact and so reduced that two sous 
less brings on cataclysms ! And suddenly nothing left, 
life cut off, swept away from old trembling hands, be- 
wildered, groping in the darkness, incapable of labor, all 
these humble and tranquil existences thrown at one blow 
into the fear of want. A hundred desperate letters had 
arrived from Vendôme, where Fayeux, the dividend-col- 
lector, had aggravated the disaster by flight. The de- 
positary of the money and shares of the customers for 
whom he operated at the Bourse, he had begun to gam- 
ble for himself at a terrible rate ; and, having lost, and 
being unwilling to pay, he had vanished with the few 
hundred thousand francs which were still in his hands. 
Around Vendôme, in the remotest farms, he left poverty 
and tears. Everywhere the crash had thus invaded the 
humble cottages. As after great epidemics, were not the 
really pitiable victims this middle population, whose little 
savings the sons alone could hope to reaccumulate after 
years of hard labor? 

Finally Madame Caroline went out to go to Mazaud’s ; 
and, as she walked toward the Rue de la Banque, she 
thought of the repeated blows which had fallen upon the 
broker during the last fortnight. There was Fayeux, who 
had robbed him of three hundred thousand francs ; Saba- 
tani, who left an unpaid account of nearly double that 
sum ; the Marquis de Bohain and the Baroness Sandorff, 
both of whom refused to pay balances of mors than a 
million ; Sédille, whose bankruptcy swept away from him 
about the same sum ; to say nothing of the eight millions 


MONEY. 


387 


which the Universal owed him, those eight millions for 
which he had carried Saccard, the frightful loss, the gulf 
into which, from hour to hour, the anxious Bourse ex- 
pected to see him tumble. Twice already such a catas- 
trophe had been reported. And, in this fury of fate, a 
last misfortune had just come to him, which was to be 
the drop of water that would overflow the vase : two days 
before, the clerk Flory had been arrested, convicted of 
having embezzled a hundred and eighty thousand francs. 
Gradually the demands of Mademoiselle Chuchu, the for- 
mer little figurante, the thin grasshopper from the Parisian 
pavements, had increased, first the inexpensive pleasure 
parties, then the apartments in the Rue Condorcet, then 
jewels and laces ; and what had lost the unfortunate and 
soft-hearted boy was his first profit of ten thousand francs, 
after Sadowa, that pleasure-money so quickly gained, so 
quickly spent, which had necessitated more and still more, 
a complete fever of passion for the woman so dearly 
bought. But the extraordinary feature of the story lay 
in the fact that Flory had robbed his employer simply to 
pay his gambling debt to another broker : singular hon- 
esty, bewilderment in the fear of immediate execution, 
hoping doubtless to conceal the robbery, to fill up the 
hole by some miraculous operation. In prison he had 
wept much, in a frightful reawakening of shame and de- 
spair ; and it was related that his mother, who had arrived 
that very morning from Saintes to see him, had had to 
take to her bed at the house of the friends with whom she 
was stopping. 

What a strange thing is luck ! thought Madame Caro- 
line, as she crossed the Place de la Bourse. The extraor- 
dinary success of the Universal, this rapid ascent in tri- 
umph, in conquest and domination, in less than four 
years, then this sudden collapse, this colossal edifice which 
a month had sufficed to reduce to dust, always stupefied 
her. And was not this also Mazaud’s history? Certainly 
never had a man seen destiny so smile upon him. A 
broker at the age of thirty-two, very rich already through 
the death of his uncle, and the happy husband of a woman 
who adored him and who had presented him with two 


388 


MONEY. 


beautiful children, he was furthermore a handsome man, 
every day becoming a figure of more importance at the 
corbeille, by his relationships, his activity, his really sur- 
prising scent, and even his shrill voice, whose fife-like 
tones had become as famous as Jacoby’s thunder. And, 
suddenly, here the situation was cracking ; he found him- 
self on the edge of the abyss, where now it needed but a 
breath to topple him over. And yet he had not gambled, 
still protected by his zeal for labor, by his anxious youth. 
He was struck in open, loyal struggle, through inexperi- 
ence and passion, from having believed too much in 
others. Moreover, sympathies remained keen ; it was 
even pretended, with much confidence, that he would 
come out of it all right. 

When Madame Caroline had ascended to the office, 
she plainly detected the odor of ruin, the shudder of se- 
cret anguish, in the gloomy rooms. In passing through 
the cash-office, she noticed a score of persons, a whole 
crowd waiting, while the money-cashier and the stock- 
cashier still honored the engagements of the house, but 
with a slackening hand, like men emptying the last 
drawers. Through a half-open door, the liquidation-office 
seemed to her asleep, with its seven employees reading 
their newspapers, having but few transactions to charge 
now that everything was at a standstill at the Bourse! 

1 he counting-room alone showed some signs of life. And 
it was Berthier, the attorney, who received her, greatly 
agitated himself, with pale face, in the misfortune of the 
house. 


I do not know, Madame, whether Monsieur can re- 
ceive you He is suffering a little, having taken cold by 
obstinately working without a fire all last night, and he 
has just gone down to his apartments on the second floor 
to get a little rest.” 


Then Madame Caroline insisted. 

I beg of you, Monsieur, make him give me the op- 
portunity of a few words. The salvation of my brother 
perhaps, depends upon it. Monsieur Mazaud well knows 
If brother *? e y? r was concerned in the operations 
at the Bourse, and his testimony will be of great impor- 


MONEY. 389 

tance. Moreover, I want to get some figures from him ; 
he alone can inform me as to certain documents.” 

Berthier, full of hesitation, finally asked her to enter 
the broker’s private office. 

“Wait there a moment, Madame ; I will go and see.” 

And in this room, in fact, Madame Caroline felt a keen 
sensation of cold. The fire must have been out since the 
day before ; no one had thought of lighting it again. 
But what struck her more still was the perfect order, as 
if the whole night and the entire morning had just been 
spent in emptying the furniture, destroying the useless 
papers, and classifying those which must be kept. Noth- 
ing was dragging about, not a paper, not even a letter. 
On the desk, methodically arranged, were only the ink- 
stand, the pen-rack, and a large blotting-pad, amid which 
was left simply a package of the fiches of the house, green 
fiches , the color of hope. In this nudity an infinite sad- 
ness fell with the heavy silence. 

After some minutes Berthier reappeared. 

“ Indeed, Madame, I have rung twice, and I do not 
dare to insist. Perhaps you will ring yourself on your 
way down. But I advise you to come again.” 

Madame Caroline had to be resigned. Nevertheless, 
on the seeond-floor landing, she again hesitated, and even 
advanced her hand to press the bell-button. But finally 
she had decided to go away, when cries and sobs, a 
muffled uproar, coming from the apartments, stopped her. 
Suddenly the door opened, and a domestic rushed out, 
bewildered, and disappeared in the stairway, murmuring : 

“ My God ! my God ! Monsieur ”... 

She stood motionless before this open door, from which 
came, now distinctly, a wail of frightful grief. And she 
became very cold, divining what had happened, a clear 
vision of the situation arising before her. First she 
wanted to fly; then she could not, bewildered with pity, 
attracted, feeling a need of seeing and bringing her tears 
too. She entered, found all the doors wide open, and 
went as far as the salon. 

Two servants, doubtless the cook and the chamber- 


39 ° 


MONËY. 


maid, were stretching their necks, with terrified faces, 
stammering : 

“ Oh ! Monsieur, oh ! my God ! my God ! 

The dying light of the gray winter day entered feebly 
through the parting of the heavy silk curtains. But it 
was very warm ; the remains of huge logs lay in glowing 
embers in the fire-place, lighting the walls with a deep 
red reflection. On a table a bunch of roses, a royal 
bouquet for the season, which the broker had brought his 
wife the day before, was blooming in this green-house 
warmth, scenting the whole room. It was like the per- 
fume of the refined luxury of the furnishings, the pleasant 
odor of luck, of wealth, of happiness in love, which for 
four years had flourished there. And, under the red re- 
flection of the fire, Mazaud lay back on the edge of the 
sofa, with his head pierced by a bullet, his clenched hand 
upon the hilt of a revolver ; while, standing before him, 
his young wife, who had hastened to the spot, was utter- 
ing that wail, that continuous and wild cry which had 
been heard upon the stairs. At the moment of the report 
she had in her arms her little boy, four years and a half 
old, whose little hands were clasped around her neck in 
fright ; and her little girl, already six years old, had fol- 
lowed her, hanging to her skirt, pressing against her; and 
the two children were crying also, at hearing their mother 
cry, desperately. 

At once Madame Caroline tried to lead them away. 

« Madame, I beg of you. . . . Madame, do not stay 
here.” 

She was trembling herself, and felt as if she should 
faint. From the hole in Mazaud ’s head she saw the 
blood still flowing, falling drop by drop upon the velvet 
of the sofa, whence it trickled to the carpet. On the 
floor was a large spot which was growing larger. And it 
seemed to her that this blood reached her, and bespat- 
tered her feet and hands. 

“ Madame, I beg of you, follow me.” 

But, with her son hanging upon her neck, and her 
daughter clinging to her waist, the poor woman did not 
hear, did not stir, stiffened, planted there so firmly that no 


MONEY. 


391 


power in the world could* have uprooted her. All three 
were blonde, with complexions of milky freshness, the 
mother seemingly as delicate and artless as the children. 
And in the stupor of their dead felicity, in this sudden 
annihilation of the happiness which was to last forever, 
they continued to raise their great cry, the shriek which 
expressed all the frightful suffering of the race. 

Then Madame Caroline fell upon both knees. She 
sobbed, she stammered. 

“ Oh ! Madame, you tear my heart. For mercy’s sake, 
Madame, take yourself away from this spectacle ; come 
with me into the next room ; let me try to save you a 
little of the evil that has been done you.” 

And still the wild and lamentable group, the mother 
with the two little ones, as if entered into her, motionless 
in their long, light, loose locks. And still this frightful 
shrieking, that lamentation of the blood, which rises 
from the forest, when the hunters have killed the father. 

Madame Caroline had risen, with head lost. There 
were steps, voices, undoubtedly the arrival of a doctor, to 
verify the death. And she could not remain longer, she 
ran away, pursued by the abominable and endless wail, 
which, even upon the sidewalk, amid the rolling of the 
cabs, she fancied that she still heard. 

It was growing dark ; the night was cold, and she 
walked slowly, fearing that they might arrest her, taking 
her for a murderess, with her haggard look. Everything 
passed in review before her, the whole story of the mon- 
strous crash of two hundred millions, which heaped up so 
many ruins and crushed so many victims. What myste- 
rious force, after having built this golden tower so quickly, 
had, then, just destroyed it? The same hands that had 
constructed it seemed to be furious against it, seized with 
a fit of madness, determined not to leave one stone 
standing on another. Everywhere cries of sorrow arose, 
fortunes tumbled with the sound that accompanies the 
emptying into the public waste of the contents of the 
carts used in removing débris from scenes of demolition. 
There were the last domains of the Beauvilliers, the sav- 
ings of Dejoie scraped up sou by sou, the profits realized 


MONEY. 


39 2 

in manufactures by Sédille, the bonds of the Maugendres 
who had retired from business, all thrown, pell-mell, with 
a crash, into the depths of the same cloaca, which noth- 
ing seemed to fill up. There were also Jantrou, drowned 
in alcohol, the Sandorff, drowned in mud, Massias, fallen 
back to his wretched condition of a whipped dog, nailed 
for life to the Bourse by debts ; and there were Flory, a 
thief, in prison, expiating his weaknesses of a soft-hearted 
man, Sabatani and Fayeux, fugitives, galloping in fear of 
the gendarmes; and, still more distressing and pitiable, 
there were the unknown victims, the great anonymous 
troop of all the poor which the catastrophe had made, 
shivering in abandonment, crying with hunger. Then 
there was death, the pistol-shots that started from the 
four corners of Paris; there was Mazaud’s head pierced 
by a ball, Mazaud’s blood, which, drop by drop, amid 
the luxury and the perfume of the roses, bespattered his 
wife and his little ones, shrieking with sorrow. 

And then all that she had seen, all that she had heard, 
in the last few weeks, exhaled from the wounded heart 
of Madame Caroline in a cry of imprecation upon Sac- 
card. She could no longer keep silent, put him aside as 
if he did not exist, to avoid judging and condemning 
him. He alone was the guilty man ; this was shown by 
each of these accumulated disasters, whose frightful mass 
terrified her. She cursed him ; her wrath and her indig- 
nation, so long repressed, overflowed in a revengeful 
hatred, the hatred of evil itself. Did she, then, no longer 
love her brother, that she had waited until now to hate the 
frightful man who was the sole cause of their misfortune? 
Her poor brother, that great innocent, that great toiler, 
so just and so honest, now soiled with the indelible 
blemish of the prison, the victim whom she forgot, dearer 
and tenderer than all the others ! Ah ! that Saccard might 
find no pardon ! that no one might dare to further plead 
his cause, even those who continued to believe in him, 
even those who knew only his kindness ! and that he 
might die alone, some day, in contempt ! 

Madame Caroline raised her eyes. She had reached 
the square, and she saw, rising in front of her, the Bourse. 


MoNEŸ. 


393 

It was twilight; the winter sky, charged with fog, lay 
behind the monument, like smoke from a fire, a dark red 
cloud, which seemed to be made of the flame and the 
dust of a city stormed. And the Bourse, gray and 
gloomy, stood out, in the melancholy of the catastrophe 
which for a month had left it deserted, open to the four 
winds of heaven, like a market emptied by famine. It 
was the inevitable, periodical epidemic, whose ravages 
sweep out the stock-market every ten or fifteen years, the 
Black Fridays, as they call them, strewing the soil with 
ruins. It takes years to restore confidence, for the great 
banking houses to build themselves up again, until the 
day when the passion for gambling, reviving little by 
little, flaming up and recommencing the adventure, leads 
to a new crisis, and undermines everything, in a new 
disaster. But, this time, behind this reddish smoke at 
the horizon, in the distant troubles of the city, there was 
a sort of great hollow cracking, the approaching end of a 
world. 


XII. 


The preparation of the case progressed so slowly 
that seven months had already rolled away since the 
arrest of Saccard and Hamelin, and the affair was not yet 
down for trial. On one Monday, in the middle of Sep- 
tember, Madame Caroline, who went to see her brother 
twice a week, was to go to the Conciergerie about three 
o’clock. She never spoke Saccard’s name ; she had ten 
times answered with a formal refusal the pressing re- 
quests to come to see him that he sent to her. For her, 
stiffened in her determination to see justice done, he was 
no more. And she still hoped to save her brother ; she 
was very cheerful on the visiting days, happy in telling 
him of the latest steps that she had taken, and in bring- 
ing him a large bouquet of the flowers that he loved. 

On this Monday morning, then, she was preparing a 
box of red carnations, when old Sophie, the servant of 
the Princess d’Orviedo, came down to tell her that Ma- 
dame desired to speak with her directly. Astonished and 
vaguely anxious, she hurried up-stairs. For several 
months she had not seen the Princess, having given her 
resignation as secretary, at the Work of Labor, after the 
catastrophe of the Universal. She now went, from time 
to time, to the Boulevard Bineau, only to see Victor, whom 
the severe discipline seemed at last to have under control, 
with his sullen and artful look, with his left cheek 
heavier than the right, drawing down his mouth in a 
grimace of bantering ferocity. At once she had a presen- 
timent that she was sent for in relation to Victor. 

The Princess d’Orviedo was ruined at last. Less than 
ten years had sufficed to restore to the poor the three 
hundred millions of the Prince’s estate, stolen from the 


MONEY. 


395 


pockets of credulous stockholders. Though it had taken 
five years at the start to spend in extravagant charities 
the first hundred millions, she had succeeded in four 
years and a half in engulfing the two. hundred others in 
establishments of still more extravagant luxury. To the 
Work of Labor, to the Saint Mary’s Infant Asylum, to 
the Saint Joseph’s Orphan Asylum, to the Asylum of 
Châtillon, and to the Saint Marceau Hospital, were now 
added a model Farm, near Evreux, two Houses of 
Convalescence for children on the shores of the Chan- 
nel, another House of Retirement for old people, at 
Nice, Hospitals, Working-People’s Cities, Libraries, and 
Schools, at the four corners of France; to say nothing 
of large donations to works of charity already existing. 
There was still, moreover, the same will to royally re- 
store, not the crust of bread thrown to the wretched out 
of pity or of fear, but the enjoyment of life, the super- 
fluous, all that is good and beautiful given to the humble 
who have nothing, to the weak whom the strong have 
robbed of their share of joy, in short, the palaces of the 
fortunate thrown wide open to the beggars in the streets 
that they too may sleep in silk and eat from golden dishes. 
During ten years the rain of millions had not ceased, 
the marble dining-halls, the dormitories enlivened with 
bright paintings, monumental façades like Louvres, gar- 
dens blooming with rare plants, ten years of superb labors, 
in an incredible confusion of contractors and architects; 
and she was very happy, uplifted by the great joy ot 
having empty hands at last, without a centime. She had 
even reached the astonishing result of getting into debt ; 
she was sued for a balance of bills amounting to several 
hundred thousand francs, her attorney and her notary be- 
ing unable to make up the sum, in the final crumbling of 
the colossal fortune, scattered to the four winds of char- 
ity. And a bill, nailed over the carriage-entrance, adver- 
tised the sale of the mansion, the final sweep of the 
broom which would carry away even the vestiges of the 
accursed money, gathered up in the mud and the blood 
of financial brigandage. 

Up-stairs old Sophie was waiting for Madame Caroline, 


39 ^ 


MONEY. 


to usher her in. She, furious, scolded all day long. Ah \ 
she had predicted that Madame would finally die a 
beggar Î Ought not Madame to have married again, and 
had children by another gentleman, since that was really 
what she wanted ? Not that she herself had any reason 
to complain and be disturbed, for she had long ago been 
provided with an income of two thousand francs, which 
she was now going to her old home in the vicinity of Angou- 
lême, to live upon. But it made her very angry to think 
that Madame had not reserved for herself even the few 
sous necessary every morning for the bread and the milk 
upon which she now subsisted. Incessant quarrels broke 
out between them. The Princess smiled with her divine 
smile of hope, answering that at the end of the month 
she would need nothing but a winding-sheet, when she 
had entered the convent where her place had long been 
marked out for her, a convent of Carmelites walled from 
the entire world. Rest, eternal rest ! 

Madame Caroline found the Princess as she had seen 
her tor the last four years, clad in her eternal black dress 
her hair hidden under a lace fichu, still pretty at the age 
of thirty-nine, with her round face and its pearly teeth 
but with a yellow complexion, dead flesh, as after ten 
years in a cloister. And the small room, like the desk of 
a provincial sheriff’s officer, was littered with a confusion 
of papers still more inextricable, plans, memoirs, briefs, 
all the papers spoiled in a squandering of three hundred 
millions. 


“ Madame,” said the Princess, in her slow and gentle 
voice, which no emotion now could cause to tremble “ I 
wanted to tell you a piece of news that was brought 
to me this morning. It relates to Victor, the boy whom 
you placed in the Work of Labor.” * 

Madame Caroline’s heart began to beat violently. Ah I 
the miserable child, whom his father had not even gone 
to see, in spite of his formal promises, during the few 
months that he had known of his existence, before being 
imprisoned in the Conciergerie. What would become of 
him henceforth? And she, who forbade herself to think 


MONEY. 397 

of Saccard, was continually led back to him, upset, in 
her motherhood by adoption. 

“ Terrible things happened yesterday,” continued the 
Princess, “ a crime which nothing can repair.” 

And with her frigid air, she related a frightful story. 
For the last three days Victor had been in the infirmary, 
pretending to have intolerable headaches. The doctor 
suspected that it was the feigning of an idler ; but the 
child was really ravaged by frequent neuralgic attacks. 
Now, on this afternoon, Alice de Beauvilliers was at the 
Work without her mother, having come to aid the sister 
on duty in the quarterly inventory of the medicine closet. 
This closet was in the room that separated the two dor- 
mitories, that of the girls from that of the boys, where 
at that moment Victor was lying, occupying one of the 
beds ; and the sister, having absented herself for a few 
minutes, had been surprised at not finding Alice on her 
return, so that, after waiting a moment, she had gone in 
search of her. Her astonishment had increased on ascer- 
taining that the door of the boys’ dormitory had just 
been closed from the inside. What then had happened ? 
She had been obliged to go around through the corridor, 
and she had stood in terrified astonishment before the 
spectacle that presented itself to her : the young girl half 
strangled, a napkin tied over her face to stifle her cries, 
her skirts disarranged and lifted up, exhibiting her poor 
nudity of a sickly virgin, violated, soiled with unclean 
brutality. On the floor lay an empty pocket-book. Vic- 
tor had disappeared. And the scene was easily recon- 
structed : Alice, called perhaps, entering to give a bowl 
of milk to this boy of fifteen, hairy like a man ; then the 
sudden hunger of the monster for this frail flesh, this too 
long neck, the leap of the male in his shirt, the girl 
choked, thrown upon the bed like a rag, violated, robbed, 
and the garments hurriedly put on, and the flight. But 
how many obscure points, how many stupefying and in- 
soluble questions ! Why had nothing been heard, not a 
sound of struggle, not a groan? How had such fright- 
ful things happened so quickly, in scarcely ten min- 
utes ? Above all, how had Victor been able to run away, 


398 


MONEY. 


evaporate so to speak, leaving no trace? For, after the 
most careful search, it had been found beyond a doubt 
that he was not in the establishment. He must have 
fled through the bath-room, opening from the corridor, 
and jumped out of a window upon a. series of roofs form- 
ing a sort of stairway to the boulevard ; and yet such a 
route presented such great dangers that many refused 
to believe that a human being could have followed it. 
Taken home to her mother, Alice lay in bed, wounded, 
delirious, sobbing, shaken by an intense fever. 

Madame Caroline listened to this story in such aston- 
ishment that it seemed to her as if all the blood in her 
heart were freezing. A memory had awakened within 
her, terrifying her by a frightful comparison : Saccârd, 
formerly, taking the miserable Rosalie upon the stairs, 
dislocating her shoulder, at the moment of the conception 
of this child who had a sort of crushed cheek in conse- 
quence ; and to-day Victor violating in his turn the first 
girl that fortune had placed at his mercy. What useless 
cruelty ! this young girl so gentle, the desolate end of a 
race, who was on the point of giving herself to God, un- 
able to have a husband like everybody else ! Was there, 
then, a significance in this imbecile and abominable col- 
lision? Why have broken this against that? 

“ I do not wish to reproach you, Madame,” concluded 
the Princess, “ for it would be unjust to hold you in the 
least responsible. Only, you really had in this boy a very 
terrible protégé." 

And, as if a connection of ideas had arisen in her mind, 
unexpressed, she added : 

“One does not live with impunity in certain surround- 
ings. I myself have had the greatest qualms of con- 
science, and felt myself an accomplice when, lately, this 
bank went to pieces, heaping up so many ruins and so 
many iniquities. Yes, I ought never to have consented 
to let my house become the cradle of such an abomina- 
tion. But the evil is done, the house will be purified, and 
I, oh ! I am no more, God will forgive me.” 

Her pale smile, of hope at last realized, had reappeared ; 
she spoke with a gesture of her departure from the world, 


MONEY. 


399 


of her disappearance forever as an invisible good goddess. 

Madame Caroline had seized her hands, pressed them, 
kissed them, so upset with remorse and pity that she 
stammered words without sequence. 

“ Y °u do wrong to excuse me, I am guilty. This poor 
child, I wish to see her, I shall go directly to see her.” 

And she went away, leaving the Princess and her old 
'servant Sophie to begin their packing for the grand de- 
parture which was to separate them, after forty years of 
life in common. 

Two days before, on Saturday, the Countess de Beau- 
villiers had resigned herself to abandon her mansion to 
her creditors. For six months she had not paid the in- 
terest on the mortgages ; the situation had become intol- 
erable, amid the costs of all sorts, under the continual 
threat of a legal sale ; and her attorney had advised her to 
let everything go, and to retire to some small apartments, 
where she could live without expense, while he would try 
to liquidate the debts. She would not have yielded, she 
would have persisted perhaps in maintaining her station, 
her falsehood of fortune intact, until the annihilation of 
her race, under the crumbling of the ceilings, but for a 
new misfortune which had overwhelmed her. Her son 
Ferdinand, the last of the Beauvilliers, the useless young 
man, kept from all employment, who had become a Pon- 
tifical Zouave to escape from his nullity and idleness, 
had died at Rome, without glory, so poor in blood, so 
tried by the too oppressive sun, that he had been unable 
to fight at Mentana, already feverish, his chest attacked. 
Then she felt a sudden void within her, an undermining 
of all her ideas, of all her wishes, of the laborious scaffold- 
ing which, for so many years, had sustained so proudly 
the honor of the name. Twenty-four hours sufficed ; the 
house had cracked, distressing misery appeared among 
the ruins. They sold the old horse ; the cook alone re- 
mained, doing her marketing in a dirty apron, purchasing 
two sous’ worth of butter and a litre of dry beans ; the 
Countess was seen on the sidewalk in a dirty dress, with 
leaking shoes upon her feet. It was the arrival of pov- 
erty in a night ; the disaster swept away even the pride 


400 


MONEY. 


of this believer in former days, struggling against her cen- 
tury. And she and her daughter had taken refuge in the 
Rue de la Tour-des-Dames, in the house of an old dealer 
in cast-off dresses, who had become a devotee, and sublet 
furnished rooms to priests. There they both lived in a 
large bare room, in dignified and gloomy poverty, a closed 
alcove at the back. Two little beds filled the alcove, and 
when the folding-doors, which were papered like the 
walls, were closed, the chamber was transformed into a 
reception-room. This fortunate arrangement had con- 
soled them a little. 

But on this Saturday the Countess de Beauvilliers had 
not been in her new quarters two hours, when an unex- 
pected and extraordinary visit had again plunged her 
into anguish. Alice fortunately had just gone out to do 
an errand. It was Busch, with his flat and dirty face, his 
greasy frock-coat, his white cravat twisted like a cord, 
who, warned undoubtedly by his scent that the favorable 
moment had come, had finally decided to realize on the 
old affair of the acknowledgment of ten thousand francs 
signed by the Count in favor of the girl Léonie Cron. 
With a glance at the apartment, he had judged the wid- 
ow’s situation: had he waited too long? And, like a 
man capable, on occasion, of urbanity and patience, he 
had explained the case at length to the frightened Count- 
ess. This was really her husband’s handwriting, was it 
not? which clearly told the story: a passion of the Count 
for the young person, a way of first possessing her and 
then getting rid of her. He did not even conceal the 
fact that, legally, and after the lapse of fifteen years, he 
did not believe that she was obliged to pay. But he was 
simply the representative of his client ; he knew that she 
was resolved to test the question in the courts, and raise 
the most frightful scandal, unless the matter was compro- 
imsed. The Countess, all white, and struck to the heart 
by this frightful past thus revived, having expressed as- 
tomshment that they had waited so long before applying 
to her, he had invented a story, saying that the acknowl- 
edgment had been lost, and found again at the bottom 
of a trunk; and, as she definitively refused to examine 


MONEY. 


401 


the matter, he had gone away, still very polite, saying that 
he would return with his client, not the next dayf because 
the latter could not very well leave on Sunday the house 
where she worked, but certainly on Monday or Tuesday 
.u° f n -^°r n< ? ay , the Coun tess de Beauvilliers, absorbed by 
the frightful adventure which had happened to her daugh- 
ter, who had been brought home delirious, and for whom 
she was caring with eyes blinded with tears, had forgotten 
this ill-dressed man and his cruel story. At last Alice 
had gone to sleep, and the mother had sat down ex- 
hausted, crushed by this fury of fate, when Busch again 
presented himself, accompanied this time by Léonide. 

“ Madame, here is my client, and this matter must be 
settled.” 

At sight of the girl, the Countess had trembled. She 
looked at her, dressed in loud colors, with her hard black 
hair falling to her eyebrows, her broad and flabby face 
the unclean baseness of her whole person, worn out by 
ten years of prostitution. And she was tortured ; she bled 
in her woman’s pride, after so many years of forgiveness 
and forgetfulness. My God !. it was for creatures destined 
to such falls that the Count betrayed her! 

“ We must end this matter,” insisted Busch, “because 
my client is very busy in the Rue Feydeau.” 

“ Rue Feydeau,” repeated the Countess, not under- 
standing. 

“Yes, she is there. In short, she is there, in a house.” 
In dismay, with trembling hands, the Countess went to 
completely close the alcove, as only one of the folding- 
doors was shut. Alice, in her fever, had just moved 
under the bed-clothes. If she would only go to sleep 
again ! If she only would not see, if she would not hear! 
Busch was already going on again : 

“ Madame, you must understand that Mademoiselle has 
charged me with her business, and that I simply represent 
her. That is why I wanted her to come in person to ex- 
plain her demands. Go on, Léonide, explain yourself.” 

Anxious, ill at ease in this rôle which he made her play, 
the latter raised upon him her large troubled eyes of a 
whipped dog. But the hope of the thousand francs 


402 


MONEY. 


which ne had promised her decided her. And while he 
again unfolded and spread out the Count’s acknowledg- 
ment, she said, in a voice which alcohol had made harsh 
and hoarse : 

“ That’s it, that is the paper which Monsieur Charles 
signed for me. I was the daughter of the carter, Cron 
the cocu, as they called him, you know well, Madame. 
And then Monsieur Charles was always hanging at my 
skirts and asking dirty things of me. That annoyed me. 
When one is young, you know, one knows nothing, and 
is not agreeable to the old people. And then Monsieur 
Charles signed the paper for me, one evening when he 
had taken me into the stable.” 

Erect, crucified, the Countess had allowed her to go on, 
when it seemed to her that she heard a groan in the alcove. 
She gave a gesture of anguish. 

“ Silence ! ” 

But Léonide had begun and wanted to finish. 

“ It is hardly honest all the same, when one does not 
mean to pay, to debauch a good little girl. Yes, Madame, 
your Monsieur Charles was a thief. So all the women 
think to whom I have told the story. And I assure you 
that it was well worth the money.” 

“ Silence ! silence ! ” cried the Countess, furiously, with 
both arms uplifted in the air, as if to crush her if she con- 
tinued. 

Léonide was frightened, and raised her elbow in order 
to protect her face, with the instinctive movement of 
girls accustomed to being beaten. And a frightful silence 
reigned, during which a groan, a little stifled sound of tears, 
seemed to come from the alcove. 

“ Well, what do you want? ” asked the Countess, trem- 
bling and lowering her voice. 

Here Busch intervened : 

“ Why, Madame, this girl wants to be paid. And she 
is right, the poor thing, in saying that Monsieur the 
Count de Beauvilliers has behaved very shabbily toward 
her. It is simply a swindle.” 

“ Never will I pay such a debt.” 

“ Then we shall take a carriage on leaving here, and go 


MONEY. 


403 


to the Palais de Justice, where I shall lodge the com- 
plaint that I have drafted in advance, and which you see 
here. In it are related all the facts which Mademoiselle 
has just told you.” 

“ Monsieur, it is an abominable blackmailing scheme ; 
you will not do that.” 

“ I beg your pardon, Madame, I am going to do it on 
the instant. Business is business.” 

An immense fatigue, a final discouragement, invaded 
the Countess. The last pride which kept her up had just 
broken, and all her violence, all her force, fell with it. 
She clasped her hands and stammered : 

“ But you see where we are. Look at this chamber. 
We have nothing left ; to-morrow perhaps we shall not 
have anything to eat. Where do you expect me to get 
the money, ten thousand francs, my God ! ” 

Busch smiled, like a man accustomed to fish in these 
% ruins. 

“ Oh ! ladies like you always have resources. You will 
find if you look carefully.” 

For a moment he had been watching, on the mantel, 
an old jewel-casket, which the Countess had left there 
that morning in emptying a trunk ; and he scented the 
precious stones, with the certainty of instinct. His eyes 
shone with such a flame that she followed the direction 
of his glance, and understood. 

“ No, no ! ” she cried, “the jewels, never ! ” 

She seized the casket as if to defend it. These last 
jewels which had been so long in the family, these few 
jewels which she had kept through the greatest embar- 
rassments, as her daughter’s only dowry, and which now 
were her final resource ! 

“ Never ! I would rather give my flesh.” 

But just then there was a diversion ; Madame Caroline 
knocked and entered. She arrived in despair, and stood 
in astonishment at the scene upon which she had fallen. 
With a word she had asked the Countess not to disturb 
herself , and she would have gone away, but for a suppli- 
cating gesture from the latter, which she thought she 


404 


MONEY. 


understood. Motionless, at the back of the room, she 
tried to efface herself. 

Busch had just put on his hat again, while Léonide, 
more and more ill at ease, approached the door. 

“ Then, Madame, there is nothing left for us but to 
retire.” 

Yet he did not retire. He repeated the whole story, in 
terms more shameful still, as if to further humiliate the 
Countess in presence of the new-comer, this lady whom he 
pretended not to recognize, according to his custom when 
he was engaged in business. 

“ Good-bye, Madame, we are going to the office of the 
public prosecutor forthwith. The detailed story will be 
in the newspapers within three days. It is your own 
doing.” 

In the newspapers ! This horrible scandal over the 
very ruins of her house ! It was not enough, then, to see 
the ancient fortune reduced to dust, but everything must 
roll in the mud as well. Ah ! let the honor of the name 
at least be saved ! And with a mechanical movement she 
opened the casket. The ear-rings, the bracelet, three 
rings appeared, brilliants and rubies, with their old-fash- 
ioned settings. 

Busch had eagerly approached. His eyes softened, 
with a caressing gentleness. 

“ Oh ! these are not worth ten thousand francs. Let me 
see them.” 

Already, one by one, he was taking up the jewels, 
turning them over, holding them in the air, with his 
fat, trembling fingers of a lover, with his sensual passion 
for precious stones. The purity of the rubies especially 
seemed to throw him into ecstasies, and these old brill- 
iants, though the cutting was sometimes unskilful, what 
a marvellous water ! 

“ Six thousand francs ! ” said he, in the hard voice of 
an auctioneer, hiding his emotion under this figure of'a 
total estimate. “ I count only the stones ; the settings 
will have to be melted. Well, we will be satisfied with 
six thousand francs.” 

But it was too severe a sacrifice for the Countess. Her 


money. 


405 

violence revived ; she took back the jewels, and held them 
tight in her convulsed hands. No, no ! this was too much, 
to demand of her that she should throw also into the gulf 
these few stones, which her mother had worn, and which 
her daughter was to wear on the day of her marriage. 

# And burning tears started from her eyes, and streamed 
down her cheeks, in such tragic grief, that Léonide, her 
heart touched, and distracted with pity, began to tug at 
Busch’s coat to force him to start. She wanted to go 
away ; she did not feel right in giving so much pain to this 
poor old lady, who seemed so good. Busch followed the 
scene very coldly, now certain of getting everything, 
knowing by his long experience that fits of crying; with 
women, betoken the break-up of the will ; and he waited. 

Perhaps the frightful scene would have been prolonged, 
if, at that moment, a distant stifled voice had not burst 
into sobs. It was Alice, who cried from the alcove: 

“ Oh ! Mamma, they are killing me ! Give them every- 
thing, let them take everything away! Oh ! mamma, let 
them go away ! They are killing me, they are killing 
me ! ” 

Then the Countess made a gesture of desperate aban- 
donment, a gesture with which she would have given her 
life. Her daughter had heard, her daughter was dying of 
shame. And she threw the jewels at Busch, and hardly 
gave him time to lay upon the table, in exchange, the 
Count’s acknowledgment, pushing him outside, after 
Léonide, who had already disappeared. Then she opened 
the alcove again, and went to sink upon Alice’s pillow, 
both finished, crushed, mingling their tears. 

Madame Caroline, revolted, had been for a moment on 
the point of intervening. Should she allow, then, the 
wretch to thus strip these two poor women ? But she had 
just heard the shameful story, and what could be done to 
avoid the scandal? For she knew him to be a man to 
carry out his threats. She herself sat in shame before him, 
in the complicity of the secrets which they shared between 
them. Ah ! what suffering, what filth ! A feeling of em- 
barrassment invaded her ; why had she hastened to this 
place, since she could find neither a word to say nor an 


40 6 


MONEY. 


aid to extend ? All the phrases that arose to her lips, 
questions, simple allusions, regarding the terrible event of 
the day before, seemed to her wounding, soiling, impossi- 
ble to risk in presence of the victim, whose mind was still 
wandering, in the agony of the stain that had been put 
upon her. And what aid could she have offered which 
would not have seemed like derisive charity, she who was 
also ruined, embarrassed already in awaiting the issue of 
the trial? At last she advanced, with eyes full of tears 
and open arms, in an infinite pity, a bewildered emotion 
which made her whole being tremble. 

Within the vulgar alcove of these furnished lodgings, 
these two miserable creatures, crushed and finished, were 
all that remained of the ancient race of the Beauvilliers, 
formerly so powerful, sovereign. It had had estates as 
large as a kingdom; twenty leagues in Loire had be- 
longed to it, — castles,- meadows, ploughed lands, forests. 
Then this immense landed fortune had gradually disap- 
peared with the progress of the centuries, and the Count- 
ess had just engulfed the last waif in one of those 
tempests of modern speculation of which she had no 
comprehension : at first her twenty thousand francs of 
savings, accumulated for her daughter sou by sou, then 
the sixty thousand francs borrowed on the Aublets’ then 
the whole farm. The mansion in the Rue Saint-Lazare 
would not pay the creditors. Her son had died far from 
her and without glory. They had brought home to her 
her daughter, wounded and soiled by a bandit, as they 
pick up, bleeding and covered with mud, a child whom a 
carriage has just crushed. And the Countess, formerly 
so noble, slender, perfectly white, with her grand super- 
annuated air, was now nothing but a poor old woman 
destroyed, shattered by this devastation ; while, without 
beauty, without youth, showing the ugliness of her too 
long neck in the disorder of her chemise, Alice had the 
eyes of a mad-woman, in which could be read the mortal 
sorrow of her last pride, her violated virginity. And they 
both sobbed always, sobbed endlessly. J 

Then Madame Caroline did not say a word, but simply 
took them both and pressed them tightly to her heart. 


MONEY. 


4ô; 

It was the only thing that she could do ; she wept with 
them. And the unfortunates understood ; their tears re- 
doubled, but flowed more gently. Though no consola- 
tion was possible, would it not be necessary still to live, 
to live in spite of everything ? 

When Madame Caroline was again in the street, she 
saw Busch in conference with the Méchain. He had 
stopped a carriage, he pushed Léonide into it, and disap- 
peared. But, as Madame Caroline was hurrying away, 
the Méchain marched straight up to her. Undoubtedly 
she had been waiting for her, for she immediately began 
to talk of Victor, like one informed already concerning 
what had happened the day before at the Work of Labor. 
Her wrath had never abated since the refusal of Saccard 
to pay the four thousand francs ; she exercised her inge- 
nuity in search of some way by which to further exploit 
the affair ; and thus she had just learned the story at the 
Boulevard Bineau, which she frequently visited, in the 
hope of hearing something of advantage to her. Her 
plan must have been settled upon ; she declared to 
Madame Caroline that she was going immediately in 
search of Victor. This poor child, it was too terrible to 
abandon him in this way to his evil instincts ; he must be 
recovered, if they did not wish to see him some fine 
morning in the courts. And as she spoke, her little eyes, 
lost in the flesh of her face, searchingly scrutinized the 
good lady, happy to feel that she was in such distress, 
thinking that, after she had found the boy, she would 
continue to get five-franc pieces out of her. 

“ Then, Madame, it is agreed, I am going to look after 
the matter. In case you should desire any news, do not 
take the trouble to go to the Rue Marcadet, but simply 
call at Monsieur Busch’s office, in the Rue Feydeau, 
where you are certain to find me every day, about four 
o’clock.” 

Madame Caroline returned to the Rue Saint-Lazare, 
tormented by a new anxiety. It was true, this monster, 
dropped by the world, wandering and hunted down, what 
heredity of evil would he satisfy among the crowds, like 
a devouring wolf ? She breakfasted hurriedly, and took 


40 8 


MONEY. 


a carriage, having time to go to the Boulevard Bineau 
before visiting the Conciergerie, burning with a desire to 
get information directly. Then, on the way, in the agi- 
• tation of her fever, an idea seized and dominated her: to 
call first at Maximes, take him to the Work, and force 
him to concern himself about Victor, who was his brother 
after all. He alone was still rich, he alone could inter- 
vene, and concern himself about the matter to some pur- 
pose. 

But Madame Caroline had no sooner entered the ves- 
tibule of the luxurious little residence, in the Avenue 
de l’Impératrice, than she felt a chill run through her. 
Upholsterers were taking down the hangings and taking 
up the carpets, domestics were covering the chairs and 
chandeliers; while, from all the pretty things thus moved 
about, on the furniture, on the what-nots, exhaled a dying 
perfume, like that of a bouquet thrown away on the day 
after a ball. And in his sleeping-chamber she found 
Maxime, between two enormous trunks which the valet 
de chambre was packing with a marvellous outfit, as rich 
and delicate as a bride’s. 

On seeing her, he was the first to speak, very coldly, in 
a dry voice. 

“Ah! it is you! you come at a good time. It will 
save me writing to you. I have had enough, and I am 
going away.” 

“ What, you are going away ? ” 

“ Yes, I start this evening ; I am going to spend the 
winter at Naples.” 

Then, when, with a gesture, he had sent away the 
valet de chambre , he continued : 

If you think that it amuses me to have a father in the 
Conciergerie for six months ! I certainly am not going 
to stay to see him in the criminal courts. I who detest 
travel ! But then, the weather is fine down there ; I take 
with me little beyond the indispensable ; perhaps I shall 
pass the winter not too uncomfortably.” 

She looked at him, so correct, so pretty ; she looked at 
the overflowing trunks, in which not a rag of a wife or a 


MONEY. 


409 


mistress was dragging about, in which there was only the 
worship of himself ; and yet she made the venture. 

“ I have come again to ask a service of you.” 

Then she told the story, Victor a bandit, violating and 
running away, Victor a fugitive, capable of all crimes. 

“ We cannot abandon him. Come with me ; let us 
unite our efforts.” 

He did not allow her to finish, livid, slightly trembling 
from fear, as if he had felt some murderous and dirty 
hand laid upon his shoulder. 

“ Well, that was the only thing lacking ! A thief for a 
father, an assassin for a brother ! I have remained too 
long ; I wanted to start last week. Why, it is abomi- 
nable, abominable, to put a man like me in such a situa- 
' tion ! ” 

Then, as she insisted, he became insolent. 

“ Let me alone, I tell you. Since this life of sorrows 
amuses you, stay in it. I had warned you ; it serves you 
right if you weep. But I, you see, rather than give one 
of my hairs, would sweep the whole villainous crowd into 
the gutter.” 

She had risen. 

“ Good-bye, then.” 

“ Good-bye.” 

And, as she withdrew, she saw him recalling the valet 
de chambre and superintending the careful packing of his 
dressing-case, a dressing-case whose silver-gilt pieces were 
chased in the most gallant fashion, especially the basin, 
which was engraved with a round of Cupids. While he 
was going away to live in forgetfulness and idleness, 
under the bright sun of Naples, she had suddenly a vision 
of the other, prowling about in a dark and thawing night, 
hungry, with a knife in his hands, in some lonely alley of 
Villette or of Charonne. Was not this the answer to the 
question whether money is not education, health, intelli- 
gence. Since the same human mud remains beneath, 
does not all civilization reduce itself to this superiority of 
feeling good and living well ? 

When she reached the Work of Labor, Madame Caro- 
line felt a singular sense of revolt against the enormous 


4io 


MONEY. 


luxury of the establishment. Of what use were these two 
majestic wings, one for the boys and the other for the 
girls, connected by the monumental pavilion of the busi- 
ness management ? Of what use the yards as laro- e as 
parks, the fine kitchen-utensils, the marbles of the dining- 
ha Is, the stairways, the corridors, broad enough for a 
palace? Of what use all this grandeur of charity, if they 
could not, in these spacious and salubrious surroundings 
straighten up an ill-bred creature, make of a perverted 
child a well-behaved man, having the right reason of 
health ? She went straight to the director, and pressed 
him with questions, wishing to know the slightest details. 
But the event was veiled in obscurity ; he could only re- 
peat what she had already learned from the Princess 
Since the day before, the investigations had continued, in 
the house and in the neighborhood, without the slightest 
result. Victor was already far away, galloping through 
the lower quarters of the city, in the depths of the fright- 
ful unknown. He could not have any money, for Alice’s 
pocket-book, which he had emptied, contained only three 
francs and four sous. The director, moreover, had 
avoided informing the police, in order to save these poor 
Beau vi lliers ladies from public scandal; and Madame 
Caroline thanked him, promising that she herself would 
take no steps at the office of the prefect of police in 
spite of her ardent desire to know. Then, in despair at 
going away as ignorant as she had come, it occurred to 
her to go up to the infirmary to question the sisters. But 
even there she could get no precise information, though 
she enjoyed a few minutes of profound satisfaction in the 
quiet little room which separated the girls' dormitory 
from that of the boys. A joyous tumult was rising- it 
was the hour of recess; she felt that she did not do i’us- 
tice to the happy cures, obtained by the open air, comfort 
and labor. Certainly there were strong and healthy men 
growing up here. One bandit to four or five men of 
average honesty, that would still be a fine result in the 
chances that aggravate or diminish hereditary vices' 

And Madame Caroline, left alone for a moment by the 
sister on duty, had approached a window to see the chil- 


MONEY. 


4IÎ 

dren playing below, when the crystal voices of the little 
girls, in the infirmary adjoining, attracted her. The door 
was half open ; she could witness the scene without being 
noticed. It was a very cheerful room, this white infir- 
mary, with its white walls, and its four beds draped with 
white curtains. A broad sheet of sunlight gilded this 
whiteness, a blooming of lilies in the warm air. In the 
first bed at the left, she clearly recognized Madeleine, 
the little girl who was already there, convalescent, eating 
tarts, on the day when she had brought Victor. She was 
always falling sick, devastated by the alcoholism of her 
race, so poor in blood that, with her large eyes of a grown 
woman, she was as slender and white as the saints that 
one sees in stained-glass windows. She was thirteen 
years old, alone in the world henceforth, her mother hav- 
ing died, in a night of drunkenness, from a kick in the 
belly which a man had given her instead of the six sous 
upon which they had agreed. And it was she, in her long 
white chemise, kneeling in the middle of her bed, with 
her blonde hair streaming over her shoulders, who was 
teaching a prayer to three little girls occupying the three 
other beds. 

“ Join your hands like this, open your heart very wide.” 

The three little girls were kneeling, too, amid their 
bed-clothes. Two were from eight to ten years old, the 
third was not yet five. In their long white chemises, with 
their frail hands clasped and their serious and ecstatic 
faces, one would have taken them for little angels. 

“ And you will repeat after me what I am going to say. 
Listen. My God ! reward Monsieur Saccard for his kind- 
ness, let him live long and be happy.” 

Then, with their cherubs’ voices, the adorably clumsy 
lisping of childhood, the four little girls repeated together, 
in an impulse of faith in which all their pure little beings 
went out : 

“ My God ! reward Monsieur Saccard for his kindness, 
let him live long and be happy.” 

With an impetuous movement, Madame Caroline was 
about to enter the room and hush these children, forbid- 
ding what she regarded as a blasphemous and cruel game. 


412 


MONEY. 


No, no! Saccard had no right to be loved; it was to 
pollute infancy to allow it to pray for his happiness. Then 
a great shudder stopped her ; tears rose to her eyes. Why 
should she force these innocent beings, knowing nothing 
yet of life, to share her quarrel, the wrath of her experi- 
ence? Had not Saccard been good to them, he who was 
to some extent the creator of this house, and who sent 
them play-things every month ? She was profoundly 
agitated, again confronted by this proof that there is no 
man utterly blameworthy, no man who, amid all the evil 
which he may have done, has not also done much good. 
And as she started off, the little girls again took up their 
prayer, and she carried away in her ears these angelic 
voices calling down the blessings of heaven upon the 
conscienceless and catastrophic man whose mad hands 
had just ruined a world. 

As she finally left her cab in the Boulevard du Palais, 
in front of the Conciergerie, she noticed that in her 
emotion she had forgotten, at home, the box of carna- 
tions which she had prepared that morning for her brother. 
There was a flower-girl near by, selling little bouquets of 
roses at two sous; and she took one, and made Hamelin, 
who adored flowers, smile when she told him of her 
thoughtlessness. On this occasion, however, she found 
him sad. At first, during the early weeks of his 
imprisonment, he had been unable to believe that the 
charges against him were serious. His defence seemed to 
him a simple matter : he had been elected president 
against his will, he had had nothing to do with the finan- 
cial operations, almost always absent from Paris and 
unable to exercise any control. But the conversations 
with his lawyer and the steps that Madame Caroline had 
taken, and of which she described to him the useless 
fatigue, had finally made him see the frightful responsi- 
bilities that overwhelmed him. He was going to be held 
to a share of responsibility for the smallest illegalities 
committed ; never would they admit that he was ignorant 
of a single one of them ; Saccard dragged him into a 
disgraceful complicity. And it was then that he owed to 
his rather simple faith of a practising Catholic a resigna- 


MONEY. 


413 


tion, a tranquillity of soul that astonished his sister. 
When she arrived from the outer world, from her anxious 
errands, from this humanity at liberty, so agitated and so 
severe, it astonished her to find him peaceful, smiling, in 
his bare cell, on the walls of which he had nailed, like 
the pious child that he was, four holy images, violently 
colored, surrounding a little black wooden crucifix. As 
soon as one puts himself in the hand of God, there is no 
more revolt, all undeserved suffering is a guarantee of 
salvation. His only sadness, which he sometimes felt, 
arose from the disastrous stopping of his grand labors. 
Who would take up his work? Who would continue the 
resurrection of the Orient, so happily begun by the 
General Company of United Steamers and by the Carmel 
Silver Mining Company? Who would construct the net- 
work of iron ways, from Broussa to Beyrout and Damas- 
cus, from Smyrna to Trebizond, all this circulation of 
young blood in the veins of the old world ? And yet 
here too he believed ; he said that the work undertaken 
could not die ; he felt only the grief of being no longer 
the hand chosen by heaven for its execution. And 
especially his voice broke when he sought to know in 
punishment of what fault God had not permitted him to 
realize the grand Catholic bank destined to transform 
modern society, that Treasury of the Holy Sepulchre 
which would restore a kingdom to the Pope and finally 
make a single nation of all the peoples, by taking from the 
Jews the sovereign power of money. And this alsQ he 
predicted, this inevitable, invincible bank ; he was the 
forerunner of the Just man with pure hands who would 
some day found it. And if on this afternoon he seemed 
anxious, it must be simply because, in his serenity of a 
man accused and about to be convicted, he had reflected 
that never on getting out of prison would his hands be 
sufficiently clean to resume the great work. 

He listened absent-mindedly as his sister explained to 
him that in the newspapers opinion seemed to be growing 
a little more favorable to him. Then, without transition, 
looking at her with his eyes of an awakened sleeper, he 
asked : 


414 


MONEY. 


“ Why do you refuse to see him ?” 

She trembled ; she clearly understood that he had refer- 
ence to Saccard. With a motion of her head she said no, 
and no again. Then confused, he said, in a very low voice : 

“ After what he has been to you, you cannot refuse ; go 
and see him ! ” 

My God ! he knew ; an ardent redness suffused her 
countenance ; she threw herself into his arms to hide 
her face ; and she stammered, and asked who could have 
told him, how he knew this thing which she supposed 
nobody knew, especially not he. 

“ My poor Caroline, long ago. From anonymous let- 
ters, from villainous people who were jealous of us. I 
have never spoken to you about it, you are free, we no 
longer think alike. I know that you are the best woman 
on earth. Go and see him.” 

And gayly, his smile reappearing, he took down the 
little bouquet of roses, which he had already slipped be- 
hind the crucifix, and placed it in her hand, adding: 

“ Carry this to him, and tell him that I am no longer 
angry with him.” 

Madame Caroline, upset by her brother’s tenderness so 
full of pity, in the frightful shame and delightful relief 
which she felt at the same time, did not resist further. 
Moreover, ever since morning, a secret necessity of seeing 
Saccard had imposed itself upon her. Could she not 
warn him of Victor’s flight, of the atrocious adventure 
from which she was still trembling ? In the earliest days 
of his imprisonment, he had asked to have her name 
written among those of the persons whom he desired to 
receive ; and she had only to tell who she was, and a 
guardian straightway led her to the prisoner’s cell. 

When she entered, Saccard was sitting at a little table, 
with his back to the door, covering a sheet of paper with 
figures. 

He rose quickly, with a shout of joy. 

“You! Oh! how good you are, and how happy I 
am ! ” 

He had taken one of her hands in both his own. She 
was smiling with an embarrassed air, very much agitated, 


MONEY. 


415 


unable to find the right word to say. Then, with her free 
hand, she laid down her little two-sou bouquet, among the 
sheets of paper, covered with figures, that littered the 
table. 

“ You are an angel ! ” he murmured, delighted, kissing 
her fingers. 

At last she spoke. 

“ It is true, it was finished, I had condemned you in my 
heart. But my brother wishes me to come.” 

“ No, no, do not say that ! Say that you are too intel- 
ligent, that you are too good, and that you have under- 
stood, and that you forgive me.” 

With a gesture she interrupted him. 

“ I implore you, do not ask so much. I do not know 
myself. Is it not enough that I have come ? And be- 
sides, I have something very sad to tell you.” 

Then, in one breath, in an undertone, she told him of 
Victor’s savage reawakening, his assault upon Mademoi- 
selle de Beauvilliers, his extraordinary, inexplicable flight, 
the futility thus far of all search, the little hope that was 
entertained of finding him. He listened to her, aston- 
ished, without a question, without a gesture ; and, when 
she had finished, two big tears dilated his eyes and rolled 
down his cheeks, while he stammered : 

“ Poor fellow ! Poor fellow !” 

Never had she seen him weep. She was deeply agi- 
tated and astonished, so singular did these tears of Sac- 
card seem to her, gray and heavy, coming from afar, from 
a heart hardened and debased by years of brigandage. 
Directly, moreover, he burst out into noisy despair. 

“ But it is frightful ; I have never embraced this boy. 
For you know that I had not seen him. My God ! yes, 
I had sworn to go and see him, and I have not had the 
time, not a free hour, with these cursed business matters 
which are eating me up. Ah ! that is always the way ; 
when one does not do a thing immediately, he is certain 
never to do it. And so now you are sure that I cannot 
see him ? They would bring him to me here.” 

She shook her head. 


416 


MONEY. 


“ Who knows where he is, at this hour, in the unknown 
of this terrible Paris?” 

A moment longer he walked back and forth violently, 
dropping bits of phrases. 

“ They find this child for me, and here I lose him. 
Never shall I see him. I have no luck, no ! no luck at all. 
Oh ! my God ! the story is the same as in the case of the 
Universal.” 

He had just sat down again at the table, and Madame 
Caroline took a chair opposite him. Already, with hands 
wandering among the papers, the whole voluminous brief 
which he had been preparing for months, he went into 
the history of the case and explained his methods of de- 
fence, as if feeling the need of showing her that he was 
innocent. The charges against him were these : the capi- 
tal incessantly increased to give a feverish rise to the 
quotations and to make people believe that the society 
was in possession of the whole of its funds ; the simula- 
tion of subscriptions and payments that had not been 
made, by means of the accounts opened with Sabatani 
and other men of straw, who paid only by tricks of hand- 
writing ; the distribution of fictitious dividends under the 
form of a release of the old shares ; and, finally, the pur- 
chase by the society of its own stock, a lawless speculation 
which had produced the extraordinary and fictitious rise, 
of which the Universal had died, exhausted of its gold. 
To this he made answer by abundant and passionate ex- 
planations : he had done what every bank manager does, 
only he had done it on a large scale, with the vigor of a 
strong man. Not one of the heads of the solidest houses 
in Paris but ought to share his cell, if logic were to count 
for anything. They made him the scape-goat of the ille- 
galities of all. On the other hand, what a strange way of 
estimating responsibilities ! Why did they not prosecute 
the directors also, the Daigremonts, the Hurets, the 
Bohains, who, beside their fifty thousand francs of at- 
tendance fees, had received ten per cent, of the profits, 
and had been steeped in all the jobs? Why also the com- 
plete impunity which the auditors enjoyed, Lavignièrè 
among others, who were free to plead their incapacity 


MONEY. 


417 


and their good faith ? Evidently this trial was going to be 
the most monstrous of iniquities, for they had had to put 
aside Busch’s charge of swindling, as alleging facts not 
proven, and the report made by the expert, after a first 
examination of the books, had just been found to be full 
of errors. Then why the bankruptcy, officially declared 
on the strength of these two documents, when not a sou 
of the deposits had been embezzled, and when all the cus- 
tomers were to re-enter into the possession of their funds ? 
Did they simply wish to ruin the stockholders? In that 
case they had succeeded ; the disaster had been aggra- 
vated, and had spread without limit. And it was not he 
who should be accused, but the magistracy, the govern- 
ment, all those who had conspired to suppress him and 
kill the Universal. 

“ Ah ! the rascals, if they left me free, you would have 
seen, you would have seen ! ” 

Madame Caroline looked at him, impressed by his lack 
of conscience, which was becoming really grand. She re- 
membered his theories of former days, the necessity of 
speculation in great enterprises, in which all just reward 
is impossible, gambling regarded as human excess, the 
necessary manure, the muck-heap from which progress 
grows. Was it not he then who, with his unscrupulous 
hands, had madly heated the enormous machine, until it. 
had exploded into bits and wounded all those whom it 
carried with it? This figure of three thousand francs, a 
senseless and imbecile exaggeration, was it not he who 
had desired it ? A society with a capital of a hundred 
and fifty millions, and whose three hundred thousand 
shares, quoted at three thousand francs, represent nine 
hundred millions, could that be justified ? Was there not 
a frightful danger in the distribution of the colossal divi- 
dend which the investment of such a sum demanded, at 
the simple rate of five per cent ? 

But he had risen ; he went up and down the little room, 
with the spasmodic step of a great conqueror in a cage. 

“Ah! the rascals, they well knew what they did in 
chaining me up here. I was going to triumph and crush 
them all.” 


4i8 


MONEY. 


She gave a start of surprise.and protest. 

“ How triumph ? Why, you hadn’t a sou left ; you 
were conquered.” 

“ Evidently,” he rejoined, bitterly, “ I was conquered, I 
am a canaille. Honesty, glory, these are simply success. 
One must not let himself be beaten, otherwise he will find 
himself on the morrow only a fool and a fraud. Oh î I 
can imagine what they are saying ; you do not need to 
repeat to me their words. Isn’t it this ? They glibly talk 
of me as a robber ; they accuse me of having put all these 
millions in my pocket; they would strangle me, if they 
had me in their clutches ; and, what is worse, they shrug 
their shoulders. with pity, a simple madman, a poor intel- 
ligence. But, if I had succeeded, imagine that ! Yes, if I 
had struck down Gundermann, conquered the market, if 
I were at this hour the undisputed king of gold, eh ? what 
a triumph ! I should be a hero, I should have Paris at 
my feet.” 

Squarely she opposed him. 

“ You had with you neither justice nor logic; you could 
not succeed.” 

He had stopped in front of her, with a sudden move- 
ment, and he became angry. 

“Not succeed, nonsense! Money was lacking, that 
was all. If Napoleon, on the day of Waterloo, had had 
a hundred thousand more men to be killed, he would have 
triumphed, the face of the world would have been changed. 
And if I had had the necessary few hundred millions to 
throw into the gulf, I should be the master of the world.” 

“ But it is frightful ! ” she cried, in revolt. “ What ! 
you think there have not been enough ruins, not enough 
tears, not enough blood ! You must have other disasters 
still, other families stripped, other unfortunates reduced 
to begging in the streets ! ” 

He resumed his violent walk, and, with a gesture of su- 
perior indifference, shouted : 

“ Hoes life concern itself about that ? Every step that 
we take crushes thousands of existences.” 

And a silence prevailed ; she followed him in his march 
with a freezing heart, Was he a knave ? Was he a hero ? 


MONEY. 


419 


She trembled as she asked herself what thoughts of a 
great captain, conquered and reduced to powerlessness, 
he could have been revolving in his mind during the six 
months that he had been confined in this cell ; and then 
she simply threw a glance about her : the four bare walls, 
the little iron bedstead, the white-wood table, the two 
straw chairs. He who had lived amid lavish, dazzling 
luxury ! 

But suddenly he came back to sit down again, as if his 
legs were broken with weariness. And he talked at length, 
in an undertone, in a sort of involuntary confession. 

“ Decidedly Gundermann was right : fever is worth 
nothing at the Bourse. Ah ! the rascal, how happy he 
is, in having no blood or nerves, in being unable to sleep 
with a woman or drink a bottle of Burgundy ! I believe, 
however, that he has always been like that, his veins flow- 
ing with drifting ice. I am too passionate, that is evident. 
There is no other reason for my defeat, that is why my 
back has been so often broken. And it must be added 
that, if my passion kills me, it is also my passion that 
gives me life. Yes, it bears me on, it adds to' my stature, 
it pushes me very far, and then it strikes me down and 
suddenly destroys all its work. Perhaps to enjoy is only 
to devour one’s self. Certainly, when I reflect upon these 
four years of struggle, I see clearly that all that has be- 
trayed me is all that I have desired, all that I have 
possessed. It must be incurable.” 

Then he was stirred by a fit of anger against his con- 
queror. 

“ Ah ! this Gundermann, this dirty Jew, who triumphs 
because he has no desires ! He is the whole tribe of 
Israel, this obstinate and cold conqueror, on the march for 
the sovereign royalty of the world, amid peoples bought 
one by one by the omnipotence of gold. For centuries 
the race has been invading and triumphing over us, in 
spite of the fact that it has been kicked and spat upon. 
He has already a billion, he will have two, he will have 
ten, he will have a hundred, he will be some day the 
master of the earth. For years I have insisted on shout- 
ing this from the house-tops ; no one seemed to listen to 


420 


MONEY. 


me; they thought it the .simple spite of a man of the 
Bourse, when it is the very cry of my blood. Yes, hatred 
of the Jew, I have it in my skin, oh ! very deep, in the very 
roots of my being ! ” 

“What a singular thing!” murmured Madame Caro- 
line, tranquilly, with her vast knowledge, her universal 
toleration. “To me the Jews are men like any others. 
If they are apart, it is because they have been put apart.” 

Saccard, who had not even heard, continued with more 
violence : 

“ And what exasperates me is that I see the govern- 
ments their accomplices, at the feet of these rascals. 
Thus the empire has sold itself to Gundermann! As if 
it were impossible to reign without Gundermann’s money ! 
Certainly, Rougon, my great man of a brother, has be- 
haved in a very disgusting manner toward me ; for I have 
not told you, I was cowardly enough to seek a reconcilia- 
tion before the catastrophe, and, if I am here, it is in 
obedience to his will. No matter, since I embarrass him, 
let him then rid himself of me ; I shall be angry with him 
only on account of his alliance with these dirty Jews. 
Have you thought of that? the Universal strangled that 
Gundermann might continue his commerce, every Catho- 
lic bank that grows too powerful crushed, as a social 
danger, to assure the definitive triumph of the children of 
Israel, who will eat us, and very soon. Ah ! let Rougon 
have a care ! he will be the first to be eaten, swept away 
by this power to which he clings, for which he denies 
everything. It is very cunning, his game of see-saw, 
guarantees given one day to the liberals and the next day 
to the authoritarians; but that is a game in which one is 
sure to end by breaking his neck. And, since everything 
is cracking, then let Gundermann’s desires be accom- 
plished, he who has predicted that France would be beaten, 
if we should have a war with Germany ! We are ready ; 
the Prussians have only to enter and take our provinces.’’ 

# With a terrified and supplicating gesture, she reduced 
him to silence, as if he were calling down the thunder-bolt. 

“ No, no ! do not say these things. You have no right 
to say them. Moreover, your brother had nothing to do 


MONEY. 


421 


with your arrest. I know from a certain source that it 
was the keeper of the seals Delcambre that did it all.” 

Saccard’s wrath fell suddenly, and he smiled. 

“ Oh ! the fellow is taking his revenge.” 

She looked at him with a questioning air, and he 
added : 

“ Yes, an old affair between us. I know in advance 
that I shall be condemned.” 

Undoubtedly she suspected the truth, for she did not 
insist. A short silence prevailed, during which he again 
took up the papers on the table, absorbed by his fixed 
idea. 

“ You are very charming, dear friend, to have come, and 
you must promise me to come again, because you are a 
good counsellor, and I wish to submit to you my projects. 
Ah! if I had money!” 

Quickly she interrupted him, seizing the opportunity to 
enlighten herself upon a point which had haunted and 
tormented her for months. What had he done with the 
millions which he must possess for his share ? Had he 
sent them into foreign countries, buried them under some 
tree known to him alone ? 

“ But you have plenty of money ! The two millions of 
Sadowa, the nine millions from your three thousand 
shares, if you sold them at the rate of three thousand ! ” 

“ I, my dear,” he cried, “ I haven’t a sou.” 

And that came out in a voice so frank and despairing, 
he looked at her with such an air of surprise, that she was 
convinced. 

“ Never have I had a sou when my enterprises have 
turned out badly. Understand, then, that I ruin myself 
with the rest. Certainly, yes, I have sold ; but I have 
bought again also ; and where my nine millions, together 
with my two other millions, have gone, I should be greatly 
embarrassed to clearly explain to you. I really believe 
that my account with poor Mazaud left me in debt thirty 
to forty thousand francs. Not a sou left, the grand sweep 
of the broom, as usual!” 

She was so relieved, so elated, at this, that she joked 
about their own ruin, the ruin of herself and her brother. 


422 


MONEY. 


“We too, when all shall be ended, I do not know 
whether we shall have enough left to feed us for a month. 
Ah! this money, the nine millions you had promised us, 
you remember how they frightened me! Never have I 
lived in such a state of uneasiness, and what a relief it was 
on the evening of the day when I had surrendered every- 
thing in favor of the assets ! Even the three hundred 
thousand francs inherited from our aunt went with the 
rest. That is not very just. But, as I once told you, 
money found, money that one has not earned, one sets 
but little store by. And you can see for yourself that 
I am gay and that now I laugh.” 

He stopped her with a feverish gesture ; he had taken 
the papers from the table, and was waving them in the 
air. 

“ Nonsense ! we shall be very rich.” 

“How?” 

« Do you suppose that I abandon my ideas? For six 
months I have been working here, sitting up entire nights, 
to reconstruct everything. The imbeciles who look upon 
this advance balance-sheet as especially a crime, pretend- 
ing that, of the three great enterprises, the United 
Steamers, the Carmel, and the Turkish National Bank, 
only the first has yielded the expected profits ! If the 
two others are in danger, it is because I am not there to 
see to things. But when they have let me out, yes, when 
I have become the master again, you will see, you will 
see.” 

With a supplicating air, she tried to keep him from 
going on. He had risen, and he straightened up on his 
short legs, crying with his shrill voice : 

“ The calculations are made, there are the figures, look. 
Playthings simply, the Carmel and the Turkish National 
Bank! We must have the vast net-work of the Oriental 
railways, we must have all the rest, Jerusalem, Bagdad, 
entire Asia Minor conquered, that which Napoleon was 
unable to do with his sword, that which we shall do with 
our pick-axes and our gold. How could you believe that 
I had abandoned the project ? Napoleon came back 
from Elba. I too shall only have to show myself, and all 


MONEY. 


423 


the money of Paris will rise to follow me : and this time 
there will be no Waterloo, I assure you, because my plan 
is rigorously mathematical, foreseen to the last centimes. 
At last, then, we are going to strike him down, this Gun- 
dermann of misfortune ! I ask only four hundred mill- 
ions, perhaps five hundred, and the world is mine ! ” 

She had succeeded in taking his hands, she pressed her- 
self against him. 

“No, no ! Be silent, you frighten me.” 

And in spite of herself and of her fright, a. feeling of 
admiration rose within her. Suddenly, in this bare and 
wretched cell, bolted, separated from the living, she had 
just felt the sensation of an overflowing force, of a re- 
splendence of life : the eternal illusion of hope, the ob- 
stinacy of the man who does not wish to die. She looked 
within herself for her anger, her execration of the faults 
committed, and she could no longer find them. Had she 
not condemned him after the irreparable misfortunes of 
which he was the cause ? Had she not called down upon 
him chastisement, solitary death amid contempt ? But 
she kept only her hatred of the evil and her pity for the 
sorrow. Again she succumbed to this conscienceless and 
active force, as to one of nature’s violences, undoubtedly 
necessary. And then, though this was but a woman s 
weakness, she abandoned herself delightfully, in her suf- 
fering mother nature, in her infinite need of tenderness, 
which had made her love him while not esteeming him, 
in her lofty reason devastated by experience. 

“It is finished,” she repeated several times, without 
ceasing to press his hands in hers, “ can you not, then, 
calm yourself and rest yourself at last ? 

Then, as he raised himself up to brush with his lips her 
white hair, whose locks fell over her temples with the 
tenacious abundance of youth, she sustained him, and 
added, with an air of absolute resolution and .profound 
sadness, giving the words their full significance : 

“ No, no ! it is finished, finished forever. I am glad to 
have seen you a last time, that there may remain no anger 
between us. Adieu!” 

As she started off, she saw him standing by the table, 


424 


MONEY. 


really agitated by the separation, but already rearranging 
with an instinctive hand the papers which he had mingled 
in his fever ; and the little two-sou bouquet having shed 
its leaves among the pages, he shook these one by one, 
brushing off with his fingers the petals of the roses. 

Not until three months later, toward the middle of De- 
cember, did the affair of the Universal Bank come at last 
before the courts. It occupied five days at the tribunal 
of police, amid a very lively curiosity. The press had 
made an enormous sensation of the catastrophe ; extra- 
ordinary stories were in Circulation regarding the delay in 
coming to trial. Much had been said about the indict- 
ment which the public prosecutor had drawn up, a master- 
piece of ferocious logic, in which the smallest details were 
grouped, utilized, and interpreted with pitiless clearness. 
Moreover, it was said on every hand that the verdict was 
rendered in advance. And, in fact, the evident good faith 
of Hamelin, the heroic attitude of Saccard, who fought 
his accusers throughout the five days, the magnificent and 
resounding pleadings of the defence, did not prevent the 
judges from sentencing the two defendants to five years’ 
imprisonment and three thousand francs’ fine. But, hav- 
ing been temporarily set at liberty under bonds, a month 
before the trial, and having thus appeared before the court 
as defendants still at liberty, they were able to appeal and 
leave France in twenty-four hpurs. It was Rougon who 
had demanded this dénouement , not wishing to carry the 
burden of a brother in prison. The police themselves 
watched the departure of Saccard, who fled to Belgium by 
a night train. The same day Hamelin had started for 
Rome. 

And three more months had rolled away when Madame 
Caroline still found herself, in the early days of April, in 
Paris, where she had been detained to settle their inex- 
tricable affairs. She still occupied the little suite of rooms 
in the Hôtel d’Orviedo, which posters still advertised for 
sale. However, she had just arranged the final diffi- 
culties, and was in a position to start, certainly without a 
sou in her pocket, but without leaving any debts behind 
her ; and she was to leave Paris the next day for Rome, 


MONEY. 


425 

to join her brother, who had been fortunate enough to 
secure an insignificant situation as an engineer. He had 
written to her that pupils awaited her. It was a re-begin- 
ning of their lives. 

On rising, on the morning of this last day which she 
would spend in Paris, a desire came to her to get some 
news of Victor before leaving. So far all search had been 
in vain. But she remembered the promises of the Mé- 
chain, she said to herself that perhaps this woman knew 
something; and it was easy to question her by going to 
Busch s office, about four o’clock. At first she rejected 
this idea; what was the use? Was not all this dead? 
Then she really suffered, with a heart full of sorrow, as 
for a child whom she had lost, and whose grave she had 
failed to strew with flowers on going away. At four 
o’clock she appeared at the Rue Feydeau. 

The two doors on the landing were open, water was 
boiling violently in the dark kitchen, while, on the other 
side, in the little office, the Méchain, who occupied Busch’s 
arm-chair, seemed submerged in a heap of papers, which 
she was taking in enormous packages from her old black 
leather bag. 

“ Ah! it is you, my good Madame! You come at a 
very bad time. Monsieur Sigismond is dying. And poor 
Monsieur Busch is positively losing his head, so much 
does he love his brother. He does nothing but run about 
like a crazy man ; he has just gone out again to get a doc- 
tor. You see, I am obliged to attend to his business, for 
he has not even bought a share or dipped his nose into a 
claim for a whole week. Fortunately I have made a 
stroke at once, oh ! a real stroke, which will console him 
a little for his sorrow, the dear man, when he shall recover 
his reason.” 

Madame Caroline, in her astonishment, forgot that she 
had called in regard to Victor, for she had recognized the 
unclassed shares of the Universal, in the papers which the 
Méchain was taking by the handful from her bag. The 
old leather was cracking with them, and still she pulled 
them out, very talkative in her joy. 

“See ! I got all these for two hundred and fifty francs ; 


42Ô 


MONEY. 


there are certainly five thousand, which makes them a sou 
apiece. A sou for shares that have been quoted at three 
thousand francs. They have fallen almost to the price of 
waste-paper. But they are worth more all the 
shall sell them again for at least ten sous, because thev 
are wanted by bankrupts. You understand, they have 
had such a good reputation that they make good furni- 
ture. They look very well in a statement of liabilities ; 
it is a great distinction to have been a victim of a catas- 
trophe. In short, I have had extraordinary luck; I had 
scented the ditch where, since the battle, all this mer- 
chandise has been sleeping, an old slaughter-house of 
stocks, which an imbecile, who didn’t know his business 
as let me have for nothing. And you can imagine 
whether I pounced upon them! Ah! it has not been 
t have cleaned this up for you very speedily.” 

And she showed the glee of a bird of prey on the fields 
of massacre of finance ; her enormous person sweated the 
unclean nutriment upon which she had fattened, while 
with her short, hooked hands, she moved the dead about' 
these depreciated shares, already yellow and emitting a 
rank odor. s 


But a low and ardent voice arose, coming from the ad- 
joining room, the door of which stood wide open like the 
doors opening upon the landing. 

“ Pshaw ! there is Monsieur Sigismond beginning to 
talk again. He has been doing nothing but that ever 
since this morning. My God ! and the boiling water » I 
was forgetting it. It is for some medicine. My good 
Madame, since you are here, will you see if he doesn’t 
want something? ” 

The Méchain hurried into the kitchen, and Madame 
Caroline, whom suffering attracted, entered the chamber 
Its nudity was cheered by a bright April sun, whose rays 
fell squarely upon the little white-wood table, covered 
with written notes, voluminous papers, whence overflowed 
the labor of ten years ; and still there was nothing else 
except the two straw chairs and the few volumes heaped 
upon the planks. In the narrow bed, Sigismond, propped 
up against three pillows, covered to his waist with a short 


MONEY 


42; 

rjd-flannel blouse, was talking, talking incessantly, under 
that singular cerebral excitement which sometimes pre- 
cedes the death of consumptives. He was delirious, with 
moments of extraordinary lucidity ; and in the middle of 
his thin face, framed in his long hair, his eyes, immoder- 
ately expanded, were questioning the void. 

When Madame Caroline appeared, he seemed to know 
her directly, although they had never met. 

“ Ah ! it is you, Madame. I had seen you, I was call- 
ing you with all my might. Come, come nearer, that I 
may speak to you in a low voice.”. . . 

In spite of the little shudder of fear which had seized 
her, she approached, and had to sit down on a chair, 
against the bed itself. 

“ I did not know it, but I know it now. My brother 
sells papers, and I have heard people crying there, in his 
office. My brother, ah ! it has pierced my heart like a 
red-hot iron. Yes, it is that which has remained in my 
chest, it is always burning there, because it is abominable, 
this money, thé poor people who suffer. Then, directly, 
when I shall be dead, my brother will sell my papers, and 
I do not wish it, I do not wish it ! ” 

His voice rose gradually, in a tone of supplication. 

“ See, Madame, there are my papers, on the table. 
Give them to me, we will make a parcel of them, and you 
shall carry them away, all of them. Oh ! I was calling 
you, I was waiting for you ! My papers lost, all my life 
of study and effort annihilated ! ” 

And as she hesitated to give him what he asked, he 
clasped his hands: 

“ For pity’s sake, that I may be sure that they are all 
there, before dying. My brother is not here to say that I 
am killing myself. I implore you.” 

Then she yielded, upset by the ardor of his prayer. 

“You see that I do wrong, since your brother says 
that it does you harm.” 

“ Harm, oh ! no. And then, what difference does it 
make ? At last this society of the future, I have suc- 
ceeded in putting it on its feet, after so many nights of 
toil! Everything is foreseen, solved; it is the utmost 


MONEY. 


428 

possible justice and happiness. How I regret not having 
had the time to write the work itself, with the necessary 
developments ! But here are my notes, complete and 
classified. And you will save them, won t you ? that 
another some day may give them the definitive form of a 
book, and launch it through the world.” 

With his long, thin hands he had taken the papers, and 
was turning them over amorously, while in his large eyes, 
already troubled, a flame kindled. He spoke very rap- 
idly, in a broken and monotonous tone, with the tic-tac 
of a clock-chain which the weight unwinds ; and this was 
the same sound of the cerebral mechanism in continual 
operation, in the unrolling of the death-agony. 

“ Ah ! how I see it, how clearly it rises before me, the 
city of justice and happiness ! There all labor, with a per- 
sonal labor, obligatory and free. The nation is simply an 
immense co-operative society, the tools become the proper- 
ty of all, the products are centralized in vast general ware- 
houses. One has performed so much useful labor, one 
has a right to so much social consumption. The hour’s 
work is the common measure ; an article is worth what it 
has cost in hours ; there is nothing but an exchange, be- 
tween all producers, by the aid of labor notes, and that 
under the management of the community, without other 
deduction than the one -tax to support the children and 
the aged, to renew the tools, and to pay the cost of gratui- 
tous public services. No more money, and therefore no 
more speculation, no more robbery, no more abominable 
traffic, no more of those crimes which cupidity prompts, 
daughters married for their dowry, aged parents strangled 
for their property, passers-by assassinated for their purse ! 
No more hostile classes, employers and wage-workers, pro- 
létaires and bourgeois, and therefore no more restrictive 
laws or courts, no armed force guarding the iniquitous 
monopoly of the few against the mad hunger of the many ! 
No more idlers of any sort, and therefore no more pro- 
prietors supported by rents, no more bond-holders main- 
tained, like the girls of the street, by chance, in short, 
no more luxury, no more poverty ! Ah! is not that the 
ideal equity, the sovereign wisdom, none privileged, none 


MONEY. 429 

wretched, each securing his happiness by his own effort, 
the average human happiness ! ” 

He became exalted, and his voice grew soft and distant, 
as if vanishing and losing itself far away, in the future 
whose coming he announced. 

“ And if I should enter into details. You see, this sep- 
arate sheet, with all these marginal notes : this is the or- 
ganization of the family, free contract, the education and 
support of the children placed in the hands of the com- 
munity. Yet this is not anarchy. Look at this other 
note : I wish a managing committee for each branch of 
production, charged with proportioning it to consump- 
tion, by ascertaining the real wants. And here another 
detail of organization : in the cities, in the fields, industrial 
armies, agricultural armies will manœuvre under the lead- 
ership of chiefs elected by themselves, governed by regu- 
lations which they have voted. Stay! I have also indi- 
cated here, by approximative calculations, to how many 
hours the day’s labor may be reduced twenty years hence. 
Thanks to the great number of new arms, thanks espe- 
cially to machinery, they will work only four hours, perhaps 
three; and how much time they will have to enjoy life! 
For this is not a barrack, it is a city of liberty and gayety, 
in which each is left free to follow his own pleasure, with 
plenty of time to satisfy his legitimate appetites, the joy 
of loving, of being strong, of being handsome, of being 
intelligent, of taking his share of inexhaustible nature.” 

And his gesture, around the miserable chamber, pos- 
sessed the world. In this nudity in which he had lived, 
in this poverty without wants in which he was dying, he 
made, with a fraternal hand, the distribution of the earth’s 
goods. It was universal happiness, all that is good and 
which he had not enjoyed, which he thus distributed, 
knowing that he would never enjoy it. He had hastened 
his death for this supreme gift to suffering humanity. 
But his hands wandered, groping among the scattered 
notes, while his eyes, which already saw no longer, filled 
with the dazzling of death, seemed to perceive infinite 
perfection, beyond life, in an ecstatic rapture which illu- 
minated his whole face. 


430 


MONEY. 


“ Ah ! how many new activities, entire humanity at 
work, the hands of all the living improving the world ! 
No more moors, no more marshes, no more uncultivated 
lands ! Arms of the sea are filled up, embarrassing 
mountains disappear, deserts change into fertile valleys, 
under waters flowing from every direction. No prodigy is 
unrealizable ; the great works of the ancients cause a 
smile, so timid and childish do they seem. The earth is at 
last inhabitable. And man is completely developed, full- 
grown, enjoying his appetites, become the real master. 
Schools and workshops are open ; the child freely chooses 
his trade, which aptitudes determine. Years already have 
gone by, and the selection is made, after severe examina- 
tions. It is no longer enough to be able to pay for educa- 
tion, it is necessary to profit by it. Each one thus finds 
himself arranged, utilized, just in the degree of his intel- 
ligence, by which means public functions are equitably 
distributed, in accordance with the indications of nature 
herself. Each for all, according to his force. Ah ! active 
and joyous city, ideal city of healthy human exploitation, 
in which exists no longer the old prejudice against manual 
labor, in which one sees learned locksmiths, great poet- 
carpenters ! Ah ! city of the blest, triumphal city toward 
which men have been marching for so many centuries, 
city whose white walls I see shining yonder. . . . Yonder, 
in the happiness, in the blinding sunlight ”. . . 

His eyes paled ; the last words were exhaled, indis- 
tinctly, in a faint breath ; and his head fell back, keeping 
the ecstatic smile of his lips. He was dead. 

Convulsed with pity and emotion, Madame Caroline 
was looking at him, when she felt, behind her, the sensa- 
tion of a tempest entering. It was Busch, coming back 
without a doctor, out of breath, worn out with anguish ; 
while the Méchain, at his heels, was explaining to him 
why she had not yet been able to prepare the medicine, the 
water having upset. But he had perceived his brother, 
his little child, as he called him, lying on his back, 
motionless, with mouth open and eyes fixed ; and he 
understood, and he uttered a shriek as of a beast just slain. 
With a leap he threw himself upon the body and raised it 


MONEY. 


431 


in his two big arms, as if to breathe life into it again. 
This terrible eater of gold, who would have killed a man 
for ten sous, who had so long infested unclean Paris, 
shrieked with an abominable suffering. His little child, 
my God ! he whom he put to bed and fondled like a 
mother ! He would never have him more, his little 
child ! And, in a fit of mad despair, he picked up the 
papers scattered over the bed, and tore them up and 
crushed them, as if wishing to annihilate all this imbecile 
and jealous labor that had killed his brother, 

Then Madame Caroline felt her heart melting. The 
poor man ! he now filled her only with divine pity. But 
where, then, had she heard that shriek before ? Once only 
had the cry of human grief penetrated her with such a 
shudder. And she remembered, it was at Mazaud’s, 
the shriek of the mother and her little ones before the 
father’s corpse. As if incapable of retiring from this 
scene of suffering, she remained an instant longer, to 
render services. Then, at the moment of starting, finding 
herself alone again with the Méchain, in the little busi- 
ness-office, she remembered that she had come to ask 
her about Victor. And she questioned her. Oh ! well, 
Victor, he was far away by this time, if he were still run- 
ning! She had scoured Paris for three months, without 
discovering the smallest trace. She gave it up; there 
was still time enough to find this bandit some day on the 
scaffold. And Madame Caroline listened to her, frozen 
and dumb. Yes, it was finished, the monster was let 
loose by the world, to the future, to the unknown, like a 
beast frothing with hereditary virus, spreading the evil at 
every bite. 

Outside, on the sidewalk of the Rue Vivienne, Madame 
Caroline was surprised at the mildness of the air. It was 
five o’clock ; the sun was setting in a sky of tender purity, 
gilding in the distance the high signs of the boulevard. 
This April, so charming with its fresh youth, was like a 
caress to her whole physical being, and even to her heart. 
She breathed more fully, relieved, happier already, with 
the sensation of the invincible hope which was returning 
and ’growing up within her. It was undoubtedly the 


432 MONEY. 

beautiful death of this dreamer, giving his last breath to 
his chimera of justice and love, which thus moved her, in 
the dream that she had likewise had of a humanity purged 
of the execrable evil of money; and it was also the shriek 
of the other, the exasperated and bleeding tenderness of 
the terrible lynx, whom she had supposed to be heartless, 
incapable of tears. Yet no, she had not gone away under 
the consoling impression of so much human kindness, amid 
so much sorrow ; on the contrary, she had carried with 
her the final despair over the escape of the little monster, 
galloping along the roads, sowing by the wayside the 
ferment of rottenness of which the earth could never be 
cured. Why, then, this reviving gayety, which was com- 
pletely filling her? 

On reaching the boulevard, Madame Caroline turned to 
the left and slackened her pace, amid the animation of the 
crowd. For a moment she stopped before a little carriage, 
full of bunches of lilacs and gilly-flowers, whose strong 
perfume enveloped her with a whiff of spring. And now, 
within her, as she resumed her walk, a flood of joy was 
rising, as from a bubbling source, which she would have 
tried in vain to stop, to cork up with her two hands. She 
had understood, she did not wish it. No, no, the fright- 
ful catastrophes were too recent, she could not be gay, 
abandon herself to this flow of eternal life that lifted her. 
And she tried to keep her mourning, she recalled herself 
to despair by so many cruel memories. What ! she would 
have laughed again, after everything had crumbled, such 
a frightful sum of miseries ! Did she forget that she was 
an accomplice? And she cited the facts, this one, that 
one, the other one, in weeping over which she ought to 
spend all the rest of her life. But, between her fingers 
pressed over her heart, the boiling of the sap became 
more impetuous, the source of life overflowed, pushing 
aside obstacles in order to flow more freely, throwing up 
the flotsam on either bank, clear and triumphant under 
the sunlight. 

From that moment, conquered, Madame Caroline had 
to abandon herself to the irresistible force of her con- 
tinual rejuvenation. As she sometimes said with a laugh, 


MONEY. 


433 


she could not be sad. The trial was over, she had just 
touched the depths of despair, and here was. hope reviv- 
ing again, broken, bleeding, but tenacious as ever, growing 
from minute to minute. Certainly no illusion remained 
with her; life was decidedly unjust and ignoble, like 
nature. Why, then, this unreasonable persistence in 
loving it, in wishing it, in counting, like a child to whom 
we promise a pleasure ever deferred, on the far-off and 
unknown end toward which it is perpetually leading us ? 
Then, when she turned into the Rue de la Chaussée- 
d’Antin, she no longer even reasoned ; the philosopher, 
the savante , and the woman of letters abdicated, tired of 
the useless inquiry into causes ; she was simply a creature, 
happy under the beautiful sky and in the soft air, tasting 
the simple enjoyment of health, of listening to the firm 
tread of her little feet on the sidewalk. Ah ! the joy of 
being, is there really any other ? Life such as it is, in its 
force, however abominable it may be, with its eternal 
hope ! 

Having re-entered her apartments in the Rue Saint- 
Lazare, which she was to leave the next day, Madame 
Caroline finished packing her trunks ; and, as she made 
the circuit of the work-room, already empty, she saw upon 
the walls the plans and the water-colors, which she had 
promised herself to tie up in a single roll, at the last mo- 
ment. But she stopped, plunged in thought, in front of 
each sheet of paper, before pulling the four tacks from 
the four corners. She lived over again her far-off days 
in the Orient, in that country which she had so much 
loved, and whose dazzling light she seemed to have kept 
within her ; she lived over again the four years which she 
had just spent in Paris, this crisis of each day, this mad 
activity, the monstrous hurricane of millions which had 
traversed her life, stripping her ; and from these ruins, 
still warm, she felt a complete efflorescence germinating 
opening in the sunlight. Though the Turkish National 
Bank had fallen after the Universal, the General Com- 
pany of United Steamers remained erect and prosperous. 
Again she saw the enchanted coast of Beyrout, where 
rose amid immense warehouses, the administration build- 


434 


MONEY. 


ings, the plan of which she was just dusting off: Mar- 
seilles put at the door of Asia Minor, the Mediterranean 
conquered, nations drawn together, and possibly at peace. 
And this Carmel gorge, this water-color which she was 
unfastening from the wall, did she not know, from a re- 
cent letter, that a whole people had grown up there? 
The village of five hundred inhabitants, born at first 
around the mine in process of exploitation, was now a 
city, several thousand souls, a complete civilization, roads, 
factories, schools, fertilizing this dead and savage corner. 
Then there were the draughts, the levellings and the pro- 
files for the iron way from Broussa to Beyrout, by way 
of Angora and Aleppo, a series of large sheets, which one 
by one she rolled : undoubtedly it would be years before 
the Taurus passes would be traversed by steam ; but al- 
ready life was flowing in from every direction, the soil of 
the ancient cradle had just been sown with a new harvest 
of men, the progress of to-morrow would grow there, with 
an extraordinary vigor of vegetation, in that marvellous 
climate, under the pouring sun. Was this not the re- 
awakening of a world, humanity enlarged and happy? 

Now, Madame Caroline, with the aid of a piece of 
strong twine, tied up the bundle of plans. Her brother, 
who was waiting for her at Rome, where both were going 
to rebegin their lives, had earnestly urged her to wrap 
them carefully ; and, as she tied the knots, the thought 
came to her of Saccard, whom she knew to be in Hol- 
land, launched again in a colossal enterprise, the draining 
of immense marshes, a little kingdom conquered from the 
sea, by a complicated system of canals. He was right : 
money, so far, has been the muck-heap in which the hu- 
manity of to-morrow grows ; money, the poisoner and de- 
stroyer, became the ferment of all social vegetation, the 
compost necessary for the great works which make exist- 
ence easier. This time did she not see clear at last? 
Did her invincible hope come, then, from her belief in the 
usefulness of effort? My God! above so much mud 
stirred up, above so many victims crushed, above all this 
abominable suffering which each step forward costs hu- 
manity, was there not an obscure and far-off end, some- 


MONEY. 


435 


thing superior, good, just, final, toward which we move 
without knowing it, and which swells our hearts with the 
obstinate necessity of life and hope ? 

And Madame Caroline was gay in spite of everything, 
with her face still young, under her crown of white hair, 
as if she were rejuvenated with every April, in the old 
age of the earth. And at the recollection of the shame 
which her liaison with Saccard caused her, she reflected 
upon the frightful filth with which love likewise has been 
soiled. Why, then, blame money for the nastiness and 
crime of which it is the cause? Is love less polluted, 
love that creates life ? 



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